esrosedotblog

PEACEFUL SPOT

There may be chaos all over the country but, right here, we have a near successful adoption of the new Medicare D plan.

Way way back, it seems, in December, I made a run at the wall of confusion and sort of got over it.

I chose Blue Cross as our carrier and used a broker, who we knew from the past, to do the legwork on it.

As it turns out, they were not too supportive of the broker so I ended up doing a bit of the work myself at the end.

No problem with that.

We have both used our new cards and had a mixed experience.

Only one of my drugs is on the formulary but it is dirt cheap. An ancient generic.

The other drug I was using was Allegra. They came back and suggested I try Claritin which is OTC.

I didn't mind that, actually. I don't think that insurance is supposed to be a steal. It is a negotiation.

As it happened, I quit taking the Allegra and discovered, to my chagrin or relief, that I didn't need it.

So, I am not taking anything! I have some Allegra left if I want it, but so far, no problem.

I think that this is a good thing. One, I hate taking drugs of any kind and two, I don't think anyone should be gaming or using the system inappropriately.

I was worried about John's drugs though. We spend quite a bit on his stuff. If I had trouble with the Allegra then what would happen to him? Are they going to make us all jump through the hoops?

Nope.

He went yesterday and got the full monty.

It all worked. He got three expensive drugs for the 30.00 each co-pay; 90 bucks. We bought a plan with no deductible ever. No donut.

So his card worked and we paid about 25%.

He didn't try for his Allegra. It will be interesting to see if he has to try Claritin as I did.

The economics. I had already worked it out. We were barely justifying the drug insurance that we had with our Medicare supplemental; now cancelled—the drug part.

It was costing us about 300.00 a month for the two of us.

Now, we will pay about 70.00 a month for the two of us on the D plan.

Thank you. You are paying for the rest of it.

I know that the process has been easier for us. We have some cash and the resources to work through the decision process about a plan. We had forty options. I took the middle of the road where Blue Cross happened to be. Our experience with them has been good for a long time.

Easy.

That is not to say that I haven't worried a lot about it but that is me. Everything has gone rather smoothly.

I know a lot of people on Medicare. To be honest, I don't know of any that have gotten messed up.

I can't say I am sorry that the bushers are getting a black eye or, at least, no bounce over this. There have been monstrous screwups. But it is a complicated thing and difficult for a lot of folks. The automatic changeover was rough for a lot of people. I know some of those but none of them ended up without drugs at a good price or the zero they pay on Medicaid.

So, I gotta say that so far it is good here.

Now, I expect the rates to go up. This cannot be sustained unless all 40 million eligibles sign up.

We are in the first million.

We will see.