Tag: Chiquita Brooks-LaSure

Medicare Drug Plans Are Getting Better Next Year. Some Will Also Cost More. 

Improvements to Medicare drug coverage required by the  IRA are the most sweeping changes since Congress added  the benefit in 2003, but most voters don’t know about them. And some beneficiaries may be surprised by a downside: premium increases.

By Susan Jaffe | KFF Health News | October 21, 2024

When Pam McClure learned she’d save nearly $4,000 on her prescription drugs next year, she said, “it sounded too good to be true.” She and her husband are both retired and live on a “very strict” budget in central North Dakota.
By the end of this year, she will have spent almost $6,000 for her medications, including a drug to control her diabetes.
McClure, 70, is one of about 3.2 million people with Medicare prescription drug insurance whose out-of-pocket medication costs will be capped at $2,000 in 2025 thanks to the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act….
“It’s wonderful — oh my gosh. We would actually be able to live,’’ McClure said. “I might be able to afford fresh fruit in the  wintertime.”    [Continued in KFF Health News, CBS NEWS, Los Angeles Times, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.]
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Medicare Surprise: Drug Plan Prices Touted During Open Enrollment Can Rise Within a Month

By Susan Jaffe  | Kaiser Health News | May 3, 2022 | This KHN story also ran on

Something strange happened between the time Linda Griffith signed up for a new Medicare prescription drug plan during last fall’s enrollment period and when she tried to fill her first prescription in January.

She picked a Humana drug plan for its low prices, with help from her longtime insurance agent and Medicare’s Plan Finder, an online pricing tool for comparing a dizzying array of options. But instead of the $70.09 she expected to pay for her dextroamphetamine, used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, her pharmacist told her she owed $275.90.

“I didn’t pick it up because I thought something as wrong,” said Griffith, 73, a retired construction company accountant who lives in the Northern California town of Weaverville.  “To me, when you purchase a plan, you have an implied contract,” she said. “I say I will pay the premium on time for this plan. And they’re going to make sure I get the drug for a certain amount.”

But it often doesn’t work that way.  [Full story in Kaiser Health News, NPR  and Tampa Bay Times]  

 

 

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Chiquita Brooks-LaSure: innovative US federal health director

Volume 398, Issue 10300
14 August 2021

 

PROFILE  
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, presides over an agency with a US$1 trillion budget that provides health insurance to more than 154 million people. Tackling health-care inequities is one of her top priorities. “These disparities have long existed, but COVID-19 has illuminated them in a way that is really unprecedented”, she said. [Full story here.]

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