Premiums for many popular Medicare prescription drug plans will soar next year – but seniors don't have to take the rate hikes lying down.
Hunting season is open! Unfortunately, there’s little sport in this hunt: in Medicare enrollment season, maybe it’s time to hunt down and switch plans.
You may need to draw on your survival skills for this hunt, too. All evidence points to some serious rate increases in Medicare prescription drug plans.
As you likely are aware, October 15 marks the first day of the enrollment period that extends until December 7. Nevertheless, if you haven’t read about the prescription drug increases elsewhere, a recent article in Reuters has reported that the potential increases may affect as many as 80% of all beneficiaries and even generate double digit rate increases for as many as 5.9 million beneficiaries, or 29% of all beneficiaries. Check out the article titled “As Medicare drug premiums soar, it's time to shop around.”
So, what’s the take away? “Shop around,” indeed! Be sure to look beyond the standard big 10 plans, because eight of the top 10 are showing such increases. For instance, under the Humana Wal-Mart Preferred Rx increases will be somewhere between 10%-23% for various beneficiaries.
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Reference: Reuters (October 2, 2012) “As Medicare drug premiums soar, it's time to shop around”