Among the many (MANY) benefits of the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare” aka “The End Of America” aka “Romneycare” aka “The Socialist Take Over” aka “Republicans Are Lying Weasels”) is the closing of the so-called “donut hole” in which seniors are left holding the bag for the cost of their medicine.
The donut hole was the brilliant invention of the GOP when they passed Medicare part D. What happens is that when the cost of a senior citizens’ prescriptions pass a set amount ($2,700 in 2009 but the dollar amount fluctuates yearly) they are forced to pay anything over that amount in full with no help from Medicare. Once the costs exceed a second set amount ($6,154 in 2009 and it also fluctuates), that person is considered to be in the catastrophic coverage range and Medicare covers 95% of any further medicine. The space between is the “donut hole” and it’s been costing senior citizens billions of dollars a year.
Obamacare partially closes the hole by mandating that senior citizens that reach the limit are able to get name brand prescription drugs for 50% off and generic drugs for 7% less. The donut will be phased out completely, by law, by 2020. The average savings have been about $651 just in the first 5 months of 2012 alone.
Of course, Republicans don’t like to talk about this. They’d rather focus on non-existent “death panels” and scream about how Obamacare will socialize Medicare. The Supreme Court is due to rule on the constitutionality of Obamacare on Thursday and if they overturn the entire law, millions of seniors will be negatively impacted. One could only hope that seniors will put two and two together by election day and remember who helped them out and who made sure to sabotage that help.
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