Since I became eligible for Medicare, I have also had Wellcare as my drug plan. I've had some medications prescribed that I didn't take when I initially signed up, and have been paying a lot more for them than I expected. My neighbor is retired from the SSA and volunteers as a SHINE counselor and she & I are going to review things - I think I have until December 7th to make changes. You should be able to find someone to review your options through a local Council on Aging or equivalent (the services are called different names in different states). For example, this is what Massachusetts offers https://shinema.org/

We are with United healthcare and our monthly bill is going to 110.00 each (a Month) in January. So far I use 90.00 a year in prescriptions. I have thought of changing but I like that we get 3 months of meds and pay nothing on what we get..(generic) They are sent to us by mail.. I know it is stupid for us to stay with it but I guess we will. We also have their health plan. I checked with some others and the monthly bill is lower but than there is a copay on them. I would be ahead but my husband wouldn't. I think you get what you pay for.

I take only one prescription drug and the plan I'm on went up on the annual premium. I found one quite a bit lower, but the cost of the drug far, far exceeded what I was paying with the plan I'd been on. All plans in my state have a $480 deductible.

It is most definitely worth checking both premium cost and drug cost.

When Well Care bought out the Aetna drug plan that I had, although I take few prescriptions I found that it was more cost effective to buy mine through Good Rx. In the meantime I was still paying the monthly Well Care premium. I have an appointment to find a plan that has better coverage for the prescriptions that I need.

Thanks, everyone! Good idea to get some help, Seagrass. We have an Area Agency on Aging. I think the fact that I don't take any prescriptions regularly makes it harder to sort the plans out.

I have AARP United Health Care for my Medicare supplement, and have stuck with it for years. But their Part D drug plan increased in cost to the point where I dropped it some time ago. I think I've had four other plans since then.

My husband has Wellcare part d and is on a lot of medications, some are expensive. I also recommend Good RX and just started a 30 day trial for Good RX Gold at $5.99 a month.

Last week Wellcare wanted over $700 for a prescription...Good Rx was $96. Good Rx will give you prices at several local pharmacies to see which is cheaper.

I do not pay anything for prescription drugs, but I have an HMO supplement to my Medicare. This works for me because I use the UCLA medical group, and this gives me the availability of hundreds of excellent doctors. I would have to reconsider this if I started using doctors in Palm Springs instead of Los Angeles.

In the plan D that I just signed up for, the deductible is only for Tier 3, 4 and 5 drugs. For the two Tier 1 drugs I take the cost of the drug will be $0. An ointment that I use occasionally is more expensive, but I can get a GoodRx coupon for that one.

If you look at plans on the Medicare site, you can enter your prescription drugs and desired pharmacy and get the cost.

Socalgal, depending on the monthly premium that sounds like a good plan.

I don't have any prescription drugs, at least none that I take regularly, and that makes it harder to choose a plan. I entered some random antibiotics and a couple of pharmacies but it wasn't much help.

I almost tried GoodRx once, when a surgeon prescribed something ridiculously expensive. GoodRx made a big difference, but I ended up not filling the prescription after the pharmacist called to tell me it came with a black-box warning that applied to my situation.

Medicare requires you to buy a Plan D. For 2022, Medicare allows insurance companies to charge up to $480. (Of course, you'll only pay the retail cost of your meds *up to* $480.)

If you require few prescription meds, I'd think you'd want a plan with the lowest monthly premium. You'd never reach the deductible. My DH is in this situation. His total annual out of pocket cost for meds has been as low as $200. So his total expenditure (premium + copays) is small. Because his health is good, he can also choose a lower cost Medigap policy. His Plan F High Deductible is a third of my non-deductible Plan F.

I have one expensive prescription med and several others. I meet the deductible by the middle of February. Then I pay the much lower co-pay until I hit the Gap in November. Still, my total annual out of pocket for premium plus meds has been about $4000.

This doesn't count the extremely expensive treatment I receive 'in house' at the hospital's cancer center. Medicare overs the vast bulk of this, and my BCBS Medigap Plan F covers anything Medicare does not (which isn't much; Medicare is quite generous). Still, I'm paying the Medicare Part B premium, plus BCBS Plan F @ $3600/yr.

My version of The Beatles song should be, "Will you still need me, will you still *insure* me..."

Adding: Heck! I forgot to ask my question. How would you use a discount plan like Good Rx? I didn't think Medicare recipients could use discounts like that.

Lindsey, didn't we determine that you have a plan that is related to your previous employment and is not available on the open market to the general public?

Im on the fence about changing my rx plan. i have United Healthcare for both rx and supplemental. i got a notice that my rx will go from $87 to $101 per month, I only take one prescription drug which i could pay for out of pocket. In the last year ive had to take antibiotics, too, so im not sure what that would have cost oop. It seems crazy to spend so much on rx coverage, but then I think that there is always the unknown. Things can crop up and I could need expensive drugs. I hope not, but theres always the possibility.. Its easier to just leave things as is, so thats probably what i will do.

Dedtired, have you looked at what other plans are available? I think it's worth a look. Doesn't take much time. And since you have one prescription drug to plug into the search, you'll have a good idea of which plan is the most economical for you. I abandoned United Health Care Part D years ago because the premium kept going up--which is not to say doing the same would be a good decision for you, but it might be.

There's a link to Medicare's plan comparison site in my original post.

sweet_betsy -- Thanks for the information about Good RX, but my question is whether someone with Part D Medicare can *use* it. I seem to recall a pharmacist saying I couldn't use that or a similar coupon for that reason.

dedtired -- It only takes a few minutes to enter your meds into the Medicare.gov plan selector. You may be surprised how many options you have. You're obligated to buy some Part D plan, but if you have only low cost or few meds, I'd consider the plan with the cheapest premium. I run the numbers every year for us and have seldom stuck with the same plan. Insurance companies love inertia!

Our price for part D has changed every year, and even using the Medicare website, we've been with the same plan for years. It's been as high as $105, as low as $37. This year it's going from 46 to 63. Same plan, same company.

Sushipup, I had no idea they ever came down in price!

Chisue, I can't say for sure Good Rx coupons can be used by those who have Part D plans, but I can tell you that when I handed the pharmacist the coupon for the drug prescribed by the surgeon (I mentioned it above), no one mentioned any conflict with my Part D insurance. I ended up not filling the prescription, but I assumed I could.

Exactly, sushipup. I thought the thread was about keep or change decisions about open market plan options people were thinking about. And the online and public agency resources available to compare alternatives. Not a show and tell.

Options and prices apparently can vary from state to state.

It is not irrelevant, but some people make take the wrong impression and think that they can get the same or a similar plan. Why not just add that additional information to your post? Some people may have corporate or union or government benefits that might be similar.

I think every KT thread is a show-and-tell to one degree or another--and nothing's wrong with that. We all learn a little something in the process. And that little something might be a piece of information we can store away in case it's ever needed.

Lindsey's comments always add to the conversation. If this were an in-person conversation I don't think anyone would have criticized her for speaking.

No criticism intended, just clarification.

@chisue - yes, you can use Good Rx. I've found you don't even need to have the coupon. Just ask the pharmacist to give you the Good Rx price - they can look it up. When you use Good Rx, you are not using any other insurance, so there is no conflict. I would look up the Good Rx price ahead of time, then also ask the pharmacist for the price with your insurance. If the Good Rx price is cheaper, ask the pharmacist for that price.

Those of you who don't use many - or any - Rxs on a regular basis - have you looked at Humana Rx for a Part D insurance? The premium is less than $20 a month.

Also, Walmart sells many of the commonly prescribed Rxs for $4 for a 30 day supply or $10 for 90 day supply - these prices are for no insurance at all.

Mariagrazia, I had the Humana Walmart Part D for several years and was happy with it--until they raised the premium. Looking at the Medicare website, Humana Walmart will be $22.70 for 2022, my Wellcare plan will be $12.90, and the Aetna Silver Script will be $7.20.

Alisande - yes, that's the plan i was referring to. I pay $17.20 this year. I was surprised some mentioned they were paying $100ish a month and had few Rxs. Your plan prices sound great.

Thanks, mariagrazia. I wonder if my experience was due to a pharmacist who just didn't want to go 'outside the lines'.

Thanks to thsi thread and most ofmyou, ill be changing my tx plan. Ivebeen paying a ridiculous amount. Now to choose a new plan!

My Humana plan is only $17.20 a month with no deductible. To ge the lowest Rx prices you have to use the Walmart pharmacy which I hate but it's worth it for th savings..

Fran and Maria (and Dedtired take note), I'm looking at 2022 prices, and Humana Walmart is listed at $22.70. It's possible it costs less where you live, I suppose. I also used the Medicare website to look at drug prices. I've taken doxycycline a bunch of times over the years for my many tick bites, and this year for pneumonia, so that's the one I used. I entered three pharmacies--Walmart, CVS, and a privately owned local pharmacy.

Using the Wellcare plan I have now would cost me $42-48 at these pharmacies. Using Humana Walmart would drop the cost significantly, to between $15 and $22. What surprised me was that the $22 charge was at the Walmart pharmacy, The $15 price is what I'd pay at both CVS and the private pharmacy. I never would have predicted that.

So it makes sense to factor in both your drugs and your pharmacies.

All the Part D Drug plans listed in the back of the Medicare and You handbook are approved CMS drug plans for RX coverage that can be selected by Medicare beneficiaries with Original Medicare. These plans are standardized for all states, whether you live in PA or California, the premium and its defined benefit are exactly the same for all enrollees. Each individual drug plan may designate a preferred or standard pharmacy, and by using a preferred pharmacy will in most cases lower the drug cost for the subscriber. When you go to Medicare.gov and input your maintenance medications, you can get an idea of your total drug costs including the monthly premium costs for each of these plans annualized (or monthly even), for an individualized comparative base cost estimate for each drug plan. Of course if any new medications are prescribed for me during the year, I hope it's a tier one, generic medication and most likely covered, or if not, found cheaper with calling around to Walmart or using GoodRX.

Personally myself, I choose the least expensive drug plan on the list based on the total estimated cost to me, and by preferred pharmacy. For peace of mind, this exercise should be done each year, as nothing is static and drug plans trend to fluctuate upwards.

"These plans are standardized for all states, whether you live in PA or California, the premium and its defined benefit are exactly the same for enrollees."

I just ran a side by side cost comparison at the Medicare site by entering different zip codes in two different tabs - one for my home location and another for a location I chose randomly - Boise, ID. I only compared costs for the first five or so plans listed but they were not the same. The differences weren't huge but among the cheaper plans that were the ones I saw, that were listed first, the variance was as much as 10%.

Ok Elmer, not exactly the same cost to the penny, but I ran a comparison also. I used my permanent residence in PA zip code and the other residence in FL. The same Part D plans came up (after entering my rx) in the top three listed as least expensive to most expensive in both zips. These are the RX plans CMS has to offer all Medicare beneficiaries with Original Medicare, no matter whichever state you reside, and remain similarly priced.

I switched from Express Scripts to Wellcare for 2022. I take a very expensive biologic. The $480 deductible is taken care of the first month.

My husband takes 4 prescriptions. Past 2 years he paid nothing all year for the drugs, but his monthly premium was close to $40/month. For 2022 he's switching to Aetna. Monthly premium is $6.40 and drug cost is minimal. He'll be paying less than he was with Express Scripts.

The medicare.gov site makes it extremely easy to compare plans.

Not sure if GeoFront is ”new” here but i am glad this thread popped back up. I finally took the time to compare Part D plans and switched to a different AARP plan. I could have gone with something even less expensive but i’ve been happy with AARP so I decided to stick with them. However if I had stayed with their” Preferred” plan plan, my cost for the year would have been $1400. The yearly cost for the plan i chose will be just over $600. Big difference! Unless something changes, I wont meet the deductible anyway. Thats fine with me, the fewer meds, the better.

Next year I will meet with an advisor and make sure I’m getting whats best for me.

I probably wouldnt have changed plans if it had not been for this thread, which got me thinking about it. So, thanks my friends, for saving me a big chunk of money!

"GeoFront" is a frequent spam editor.

ETA: spam deleted

dedtired -- Once again the KT displays the early internet promise of 'the wisdom of crowds'.

If you do use an 'advisor', be aware that these people rarely sell every option available to you. The retirement advisor at DH's pension plan couldn't sign me up for the best Part D insurance (which I found by myself on the Medicare.gov site). They also told me that I couldn't switch my supplemental coverage from a Plan F High Deductible to a straight Plan F. Ah, but I could! And I did, thanks to advice from my state's SHIP volunteers.