Medicare Part D is the biggest rip-off in the world (rant).

[MIButterfly]

They make you get it; if you don't sign up within a certain amount of time after your previous drug plan ends, you have to pay a penalty for the rest of your life. When I retired and before I signed up for Part D, I ran out of my cholesterol medication and paid $13.99 out of pocket for a three month supply. My Part D premium is $102.40 a month, plus co-pay. I'm sure my cholesterol and blood pressure meds together don't cost anywhere near that amount. It's pure profit for those bastards.

I have my prescription account on auto-pay. This month, they didn't deduct my payment when it was due and when I looked up my account online, it indicated it was past due. How the hell can it be past due when they take it out themselves? So I called the totally misnamed "customer service" line and after press this, press that, six times, I finally got a live person with an accent so thick, I had no idea what she was talking about. Then she transferred me to someone else who completely drove my blood pressure through the roof. I spent 40 minutes fighting with the guy who insisted that I was a month behind and had been since I enrolled. If so, why would it take them over a year and a half to tell me? Long story short, they completely pissed me off and I told them that I will be looking for another prescription plan as soon as open enrollment starts in October. But I'm sure whatever one I get will be ripping me off just as badly. Those CEOs need to buy another mansion, another yacht and another private plane.

Rant over, but disgust remains.

[leftstreet]

1. Healthcare should be free

DuRec

[Stargazer99]

2. You watch, benefits and coverage will get less and less each year-profit you know capitalism

when a benefit or coverage declines list it on DU where everyone can see the set up. The common man is treated like something to take away from by the well to do

[Vinca]

3. We never signed up for it because it made no sense to have to use a crystal ball to know what drugs you

will need for the next year so you can enroll in the appropriate plan. We've never regretted it. When Walgreen's had their prescription club we joined that for $35 a year, then when they stopped that we reverted to drug coupons. Overall, I imagine we spent a whole lot less that we might have if we'd both signed up for Part D.

[MIButterfly]

4. You were smart. If only I had known that was an option....

My fear is, and always has been, that right now, I only take two different medications daily but who knows what I may have to take in the future? You know how doctors love to write prescriptions for every damn thing. I've always said I want to wait as long as possible before I start taking 15 pills a day. Maybe then, the Part D might be worth it. But then again, maybe not. It may be $1,000 a month by then.

[yardwork]

5. I found a $0 premium Part D that covers my few meds.

Like you, I found the plan that was being pushed at me via my retirement benefit cost more than the meds!

My understanding is that I can enroll in a different drug plan each year if I need better coverage for more meds that I hope I never have to take.

The whole thing is a racket being eaten alive by greedy corporations.

[NewHendoLib]

8. Wellcare? That's what we use. It plus good RX - very

Inexpensive meds for us ( nothing super unusual)

[yardwork]

11. That's it!

[edhopper]

6. Part D should have been

Just a part of Medicare.
Leave it to a Republican to make it overly complicated and more expensive just to let private insurance in on the action.

[anciano]

7. I don't have a Part D plan either....

I am not currently taking any prescription medications, but if I need to in the future I plan to use online options like GoodRX and Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs to help defray the costs.
That being said, however, you are correct that we simply don't know what we may need in the future. Everyone has to make their own personal decision based on their risk tolerance level.
Best wishes! 🙏

[Silent Type]

9. Might be a pain, but go back to 2004 when there was zero Rx drug coverage. Congress has had 60 years

to get healthcare straight, and they've failed us.

[yardwork]

12. This.

Should have been Medicare for all from the beginning. Too bad what's his name got caught frolicking in the fountain, but the GOP would have found some other excuse.

[leftstreet]

14. +1

[marybourg]

10. Those cards don't work for very expensive drugs

still under patent. I was going to be charged $600 for Eliquis at my preferred, but out of network, pharmacy with any of my many cards. And my pharmacy plan is a private, not a Medicare one, so there were no prohibitions against using the cards.

Had to go to hated, but in network, pharmacy where my plan covered Eliquis with no copay.

[yardwork]

13. My mom had that problem with Eliquis.

It's such a racket.