Seniors and people with disabilities with Medicare prescription drug plan coverage saved $8.9 billion to date on their prescription drugs thanks to the Affordable Care Act, according to new data released recently by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In Maryland, 45,932 seniors and people with disabilities saved $42,084,486, or an average of $916 per beneficiary, during the first 10 months of 2013. Overall, seniors in Maryland have saved $129,642,297 since passage of the Affordable Care Act. At the same time, these seniors will be free to use more of their Social Security benefit cost of living adjustment on what they choose because the Medicare Part B premium will not increase in 2014, thanks to the health care law’s successful efforts to keep cost growth low.
Since the Affordable Care Act was enacted, more than 7.3 million seniors and people with disabilities who reached the donut hole in their Medicare Part D (Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage) plans have saved $8.9 billion on their prescription drugs, an average of $1,209 per person since the program began. During the first 10 months of 2013, nearly 3.4 million people nationwide who reached the coverage gap — known as the “donut hole” — this year have saved $2.9 billion, an average of $866 per beneficiary. These figures are higher than at this same point last year, when 2.8 million beneficiaries had saved $1.8 billion for an average of $677 per beneficiary.
“Protecting seniors from the dreaded donut hole and high prescription drug costs is an important Affordable Care Act reform that Medicare beneficiaries have come to depend on,” said CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. “Today’s data shows that the law is already helping millions of seniors save billions of dollars off their needed medications.”
For many people enrolled in Medicare Part D, the Medicare “donut hole” is the gap in the Medicare prescription drug benefit before catastrophic coverage for prescriptions takes effect. Without Affordable Care Act assistance, Medicare beneficiaries would pay out-of-pocket for the entire cost of prescription drugs once they hit the donut hole, until they reach catastrophic coverage. But under the discount program in the Affordable Care Act, in 2010, anyone with a Medicare prescription drug plan who reached the prescription drug donut hole got a $250 rebate. In 2011, beneficiaries who landed in the donut hole began receiving discounts on covered brand-name drugs and savings on generic drugs. Next year, Medicare Part D participants who fall into the donut hole will receive savings of about 53 percent on the cost of brand name drugs and 28 percent on the cost of generic drugs. These savings and Medicare coverage will gradually
