Running total for 2012: $3,495.60
However, the Part D Prescription Drug benefit as created by George W. Bush
initially pays for $ 2,000 - $3,000 in prescription medicines with varying co-pays depending on the medicine. Then Medicare Part D Prescription Plan premium-payers then fall into the
"doughnut hole" and have to pay 100 percent of the cost of prescription medications until about $ 4,500 - $6,000 is spent until the "catastrophic level" is reached and Part D again pays 100 per cent. (The spinning wheel always turns at the First of the Year and Medicare Part D premium
payers must start it all over again when it could be "once catastrophic, permanently catastrophic until further notice). Spending $8,000 to $10,000 a year for prescriptions while in the "dough nut hole" has not been unusual for this individual.)
Many medications are not covered at all by Part D, which does not pay, for example, for alprazolam or testosterone. Neither Cialis nor Viagra are covered nor are anti-nausea and anti-projectile vomiting meds for chemo side effects and other medicines are paid at full retail price but with [alleged] discounts from Big Pharma, including a 50% "discount" for name-brand medicines. Part D does provide a discount for "generic" drugs but that price often matches those of many pharmacies.
The 50 per cent discount for Brand Name medicines becomes problematic. For this individual, monthly chemotherapy triggers Fibromyalgia which requires a particular non-generic, name brand medicine that, at the 50 per cent name-brand discount, still costs $900 for a three-month/90 day supply rather than $1800. Mighty white of "em.
Running total for 2012: (Too many "known unknowns" to "know" -- but at least an absolute authentic conservative estimated minimum of $1,000 more if not another $5,000 or $6,000 more:
$4, 495.60 per year.
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