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Understanding Medicare Part D
The New Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage (Part D) is a voluntary program that officially started
January 1st, 2006 and offers some assistance to U.S. seniors that incur personal expense for their
prescription medications. Multiple plans are available through private insurers and participants
need to carefully select the plan that best suits their individual needs. Although premiums may
vary, the standard program includes a $ 38.94 per month premium, a $ 310 deductible and a 25% co-pay
on the first $ 2,830 of drugs purchased annually. Therefore the cost of participation will generally
exceed $ 700 per year with a large gap in coverage between $2,830 and $6,440 (the "donut hole")
where patients must pay for 100% of their medication cost.
In other words, before the 95% catastrophic coverage can begin a patient would pay $5,017.28 out of
pocket each year. As such, it is important for U.S. seniors to carefully analyze their specific
prescription needs and assess the benefit before enrolling in the program. In some cases it may
be more attractive to order medications from ADV-Care instead. It may also be prudent to enroll in
a Medicare Part D plan and order some drugs from us as well. There may be circumstances whereby
specific drugs may not be covered under this plan or when coverage is absent (ie. the donut hole)
thus making it attractive to order them from Canada where savings average about 50%. Although,
Canadian purchases will not count toward the patient Medicare account they may be an ideal safety-net
for the gaps in Medicare coverage. Taking advantage of both programs may be a wise choice.
CanadaInternationalRx is pleased to assist our customer with a case analysis of their prescription
requirements. As a first step, we will use the Medicare Benefit calculator that will analyze Medicare
costs vs. our cost and their relative savings. Just input the amount of our customer expect to pay
for their medications in U.S. retail dollars.
Yearly amount spent on drugs:
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