Health Under Medicare

Under current law, the Medicare Part D coverage gap, or “doughnut hole,” is projected to double
in size by 2021, exposing seniors to drastically increased liability for the costs of their
medications. This characteristic of the coverage gap makes it exceedingly expensive to correct –
Congress must dedicate significant resources simply to keep the gap from becoming larger every
year; reversing the momentum takes an even greater commitment of funds. The House of
Representatives has proposed to provide additional protection to seniors from the cost of
prescription drugs by closing the doughnut hole completely, though the high cost requires this
closure to be phased- in over time. According to a recent analysis by the National Committee to
Preserve Social Security and Medicare, the provisions to close the coverage gap in the House’s
America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200) would close the gap by 2023. The
financial protection afforded by the bill becomes progressively stronger beginning in 2011,
providing increasing relief to seniors experiencing the coverage gap throughout the phase-out
period.
 from: National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Drugs, Part D: Prescrition Coverage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.