The DONUT HOLE: Where did the Term Come from?
If you aren’t familiar with Medicare, it is a health insurance program for people 65 or older, people under 65 with certain disabilities, and people with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure). People with Medicare have the option of paying a monthly premium for outpatient prescription drug coverage. This prescription drug coverage is called Medicare Part D. (and costs in addition to Medicare Coverage, that you earned, for a ‘Supplemental” Insurance to Get ‘Better” Care and Better Drugs?
We Must be as Stupid as the Person who Named it the Donut Hole.
Othe countries are laughing at us; how the Medical System is extorting us, for what is rightfully ours. Our health should be taken care of.
After reaching the deductible, you pay 25% of the cost of your drugs, while the Part D plan pays the res until the total you and your plan spend on your drugs reaches $2,800. (Now you are partners in this with, your insurance plan)
Once you reach this limit, you have hit the coverage gap referred to as the “donut hole,” and you are now responsible for the full cost of your drugs until the total you have spent for your drugs reaches the yearly out-of-pocket spending limit of $4,550.
After this yearly spending limit, you are only responsible for a small amount of the cost, usually of the cost of your drugs (Whoever can afford $4,550/ year for a Donut Hole. Doesn’t care about health coverage, just buys it)
You may have read in the 2010 Medicare & You Handbook that there are some Medicare Part D plans that offer coverage in the donut hole—but these plans may charge a higher monthly premium. (There are also some Part D plans that are “enhanced” and offer fixed co-pays (for example $5, $10, and $20) for prescription drugs instead of the deductible and 25% cost-sharing that was described above. (These plans also may charge a higher monthly premium.)
For those that qualify, there is also a program called Medicare Extra Help that helps you pay your premiums and have reduced or no out-of-pocket costs for your drugs. (Well these people are probably homeless; and if needed medicine they must be real sick. Why not put them in housing, reabilitate them and get them working, as Denver, Colorado does. Every state it should be mandatory. Three quarters of them are Vetrans, that fought for us and they have to live on the street?
Needless to say, for most people with Medicare Part D, the donut hole presents serious financial challenges. Some people have had to choose between their rent or groceries and their prescription drugs. (Really? Why? Are we taking care of our own country first?)
But, the recent health reform law – the Affordable Care Act – has some important changes that will help to relieve this burden for the people with Medicare that hit the donut hole each year (and are not already on a program called Medicare Extra Help,): (Still got to hit that damn Donut Hole)
This year, if you enter the Part D donut hole, you will receive a one-time, $250 rebate check. The mailing of these checks began in June. If you are eligible and do not receive your check, call your Part D plan first and then 1-800-Medicare. (What the Donut Hole for The New Par D. (So, ultimately, they are given your own money back) Not if you don’t make that Donut Hole. You have to get sick more to get some of your money back.
Starting in 2011, you will receive a 50% discount on brand-name drugs in the donut hole, and you will start to pay less and less for your generic Part D drugs in the donut hole.
Starting in 2013, you will pay less and less for your brand-name Part D prescription drugs in the donut hole. (When did this happen)?
When total cost of your brand-name drugs and your share of the cost of generic drugs together add up to $4,700 for the year, you will exit the donut hole and enter the “catastrophic coverage” period. With catastrophic coverage, you will pay only 5 percent of the cost of your drugs until the end of the year.
By 2020, the coverage gap will be closed, meaning there will be no more “donut hole,” and you will only pay 25% of the costs of your drugs until you reach the yearly out-of-pocket spending limit. (You know as well as I, this will never happen).
Throughout this time, you will get continuous Medicare Part D coverage for your prescription drugs as long as you are on a prescription drug plan.
It’s that Donut Hole again isn’t it. How did our Medical Field and Pharmacuetical Field come up with the term Donut hole?
After giving 2 payments up front to insurance supplemental insurace company, because of medication and have an upper tier classification, Sorry end result for everyone is the same. You can live sick-free if you would take Ancient Plant Medicine. Why is such Voodoo? Because Shamans have Spirtual Prayers? Well when you or someone get sick, dont you say your paryers in your beliefs? What is the difference? Theirs work after one ceramony, and Western Medicine will keep you hospitalzed for days. Got to meet that freaken person who coined this wonder phrase, The Donut Hole. Especially when the Pharmacist tell you, “You have not reached you Donut Hole yet..So, you have to pay full price for your medine, today Sir. What is wrong with this picture. We have to stop them from leading us by nose rings. We have to start a Movement to use Alternative and Plant Medicne.
Here are some comments referring to our Medical System today:
LESLIE MUTCHLER
January 26, 2014 at 1:46 am
I can not think anything that is more uncivilized , barbaric and immoral
as targeting the sickest of our seniors with a financial burden like the Medicare Donut Hole. The most primitive societies honor and respect
their elders. Why can’t the United States do the same , honor and
respect its elders instead of labeling as takers?
S.Cervelle
October 10, 2014 at 2:46 pm
So true – but until enough people reach the point that we shame our politicians into caring for our sick and elderly citizens the way other countries do, we will be stuck with the currently greedy and broken system. Read the reviews and blogs on people’s experiences with medicare drug plan companies ( terrible customer service, complicated self-serving exceptions, and rip-off coverage pricing). Let the companies know how you feel.
Check out and read up on how other countries’ governments provide health care for their citizens. No system will ever be perfect. Raise your awareness – talk to other people.) If this truly matters to you, contact your politicians to express your opinion. Everyone is entitled to one. Demand Plant Medince that is entirly natural growing from the earth and has been here for centuries and used for a lifetime before you ingest it. Does your Doctor take the medication you take. No. But other people such as you do, because Western Medicine has a ‘Blanket Effect” for treatment: Usually anti-biotics for the average sickness in patients.
After examining all body organs. Rid all disease in your body, anxiety, prevention of Alzheimer’s, cures Cancer; existing and preexisting. It brings the body back to it’s original state of a health body, thru ceremonial Spiritual “prayers’ as we pray, when we are sick or someone we love. A chant or a prayer is one of the same. We are talking to our Gods we believe in.
The Alternate Root 