The benefits of Health Care Reform, aka “ObamaCare” are starting to slowly become apparent.
This prescription drug benefit had a big impact this year. As someone who manages his elderly mother’s finances I saw it myself. There was a very big difference in what we had to pay when she hit the “donut hole” this year as opposed to last year. Really substantial savings…
While I was disappointed Health Care Reform did not go farther and deliver a single payer option, this is a big step in the right direction. Add in the requirement requiring Insurance companies to actually invest their premiums in coverage and not profit-which I’ll talk more on later- and the other benefits such as being able to cover children on a parent’s insurance until they are 26- and this will really make a difference. I think it will just take time for the benefits to sink in….
Since the Corporate Media isn’t going to report too much on this, we have to be grateful for this coverage from USA Today:
WASHINGTON – More than 2.65 million Medicare recipients have saved more than $1.5 billion on their prescriptions this year, a $569-per-person average, while premiums have remained stable, the government plans to announce today.
Medicare patients are saving $569 per person, on average, on prescription drugs under the new health care law.
That’s because of the provision of the health care law that put a 50% discount on prescription drugs in the “doughnut hole,” the gap between traditional and catastrophic coverage in the drug benefit, also known as Part D.
And, as of the end of November, more than 24 million people, or about half of those with traditional Medicare, have gone in for a free annual physical or other screening exam since the rules changed this year because of the health care law.
“We’re very pleased with the numbers,” Jonathan Blum, director of the Center for Medicare, told USA TODAY. “We found the Part D premiums have also stayed constant, despite predictions that they would go up in 2012.”
The Department of Health and Human Services announced in August that 2012 Medicare prescription drug plan premiums would average about $30 a month, compared to $30.76 in 2011.
Starting this year, seniors who reach the doughnut hole in prescription benefits receive a 50% discount on name brand prescription drugs. Drug companies must provide the discount to participate in the prescription plan. Before the health care law took effect, Medicare patients had to pay full price for their prescriptions once they reached the gap in coverage.
Lost in the 21st Century 