by Medicare Part D is the mandatory prescription drug insurance everyone on traditional Medicare is required to have. As the open enrollment period is about to begin, I received my “Advanced Notice of Change” for 2025 recently. Upon looking at it, I thought this can’t be correct!
Except that it was thanks to changes imposed by the Inflation Reduction Act 2022. It only passed the Senate due to a tie-breaking vote by VP Kamala Harris.
As noted by the Daily Signal, the act imposed price controls on prescription drugs that was supposed to lower health care costs. Look at the page below form the notice that compares 2024 premiums and deductibles with that projected for 2025.
My monthly premium increase $35 per month or a 673% increase. The only reason it is “only” $35 is that is the maximum allowed. Likewise, my deductible increases by 110% to $590 and the price for the cheapest prescription drugs doubles from zero to $5.
I am not diabetic so the price cap on insulin doesn’t impact me. The only supposed saving grace about this whole debacle is that my maximum out of pocket is now capped at $2000 per year instead of $8000. Given my actual out of pocket was probably no more than $200, BFD!
So much for inflation reduction as my premiums alone will rise by $420! If the cackling one thinks this is good economics, she isn’t as smart as she thinks she is.
Your yearly increase is less than I pay for 1 month of coverage on my high deductible plan, and your coverage in drugs is about 66% better than mine. My max OOP is only $10k too.
I’m in my early 40s and I wish my coverage was as expensive as yours for the same things.
Don’t know if you are subject to IRMA (Thanks, Paul Ryan) but if so you may be subject to another surprise. Supposedly, I paid for this with years of payroll deductions but it wasn’t enough (Thanks, W) . I am paying more premium than I did on an employer plan (counting all premium, not just my share) in spite of the present value of all the payroll deductions. Part D was never funded (Thanks again, W.)
Fortunately, not subject to IRMA but who knows in the future.
Forgot you were married so you have double the brackets that I do.
It’s part of Kamala’s plan to unburden you.
SO thankful I get mine from the VA!
“Medicare Part D is the mandatory prescription drug insurance everyone on traditional Medicare is required to have.”
Nope.
From Medicare & You 2025 The official U.S. government Medicare handbook, p. 79:
“Medicare drug coverage (Part D) helps pay for your prescription drugs.
It’s optional and offered to everyone with Medicare.”
If you are in a Medicare Advantage Plan, usually Part D is bundled with the rest. You could choose to not do Medicare Advantage but for some people there are benefits beyond Part D. In my case, the only option available to me, without losing my OPRB subsidy, and Part D is embedded.