I would like some opinions. I am 70 years young and in excellent health. I exercise daily and eat a healthy diet. I am a regular blood donor and the screens done on my blood are fine. I am on only one prescription drug which I can find a substitute for on the Walmart $4.00 list. Medicare part D-which I have never used-is going up drastically next year. I am considering dropping the plan. What do you think?
You may be in great shape, but the unexpected can happen to anybody. Some drugs cost hundreds, even thousands a month. Good health does not insure you will have no illness in the future. It does not protect against accidents in the home or a car or a plane. I know it is tempting to drop insurance that you never seem to use, but drug coverage is truly important. You don't want to have to choose betwwen bying medicine and groceries.
The drug that my DH takes twice a week to reduce the prolactin level in his blood which is produced by the pituitary gland tumor is generic at about $2,000 a year. This is 8 pills a month. I can't imagine life without prescription ins. We pay $8 a month for the medicine.
My feelings too, wheatleygirl. I am not even sure what Part D covers but I am not dropping any Medical Insurance at my age 70. I do have a heart, blood pressure, thyroid history though.
Bluedaze, I am 65 and in excellent health. I am on Prevacid and take my Centrum Silver vitamin each day. However, "Murphy" is a member of my family, and as soon as I had no coverage, I would need a $1,000 a month drug. There is no way I could allow myself to be without drug coverage. Are there any alternate drug coverages you could explore?
Another point is that if you drop Plan D, and then restart later, there is a BIG penalty in the form of higher monthly premiums (if you can get it). You should stay with it.
One more thing. I don't know about your insurance company, but I do know about the one that covers my husband on his plan D and my Advantage plan. On more than one occasion that insurance company has come down hard on prices for drugs and other coverages that I was paying for out of pocket because they were my insurance company. Most of what I noticed happened before I was 65 when I had to pay a high deductable out of pocket. While I was still in the deductable time, they literally haved the costs of the mammogram I paid for. It happened during the drug deductable period as well and has happened after both my husband and I were 65.
When I originally figured out which Plan D to go to neither my husband nor I were in the donut hole. For the last two years both of us were. My asthma put me there first, and his dementia put him there as well last year. Just because you don't think you need the coverage now, doesn't mean you wont need it in 6 months.
bluedaze, you can always switch to a different plan during open enrollment in a couple of months. Medicare has a great online tool for comparing prices for your individual situation -- ask for the individualized comparison, which has you enter your prescription meds. It tells you the costs (including premiums, co-pays, donut hole, etc) for every plan in your area.
And there are some really low-cost plans now that have a higher copay, which you wouldn't care about in your current situation. That might be a good option for hanging onto insurance without forking out a lot of money.