Last year, our Part D provider, Wellcare Value Script, charged $7.40 per month for our coverage. This year, our monthly premium is $0 - nothing.
How can this provider afford a $0 premium? I called their help number, but got no useful explanation from them. Do they get paid by Medicare for providing Part D insurance? Is there some other income stream they have?
Anyone know how they are able to afford this?
Thanks,
J.
I have Wellcare also, and my premium plummeted so much (under a dollar a month) that I just paid the whole year at once.
I think the government limited insulin prices and negotiated the prices of some very high price drugs, which helps Plan D. But everything I look at says Plan D premiums are supposed to be higher this year. Coverage hasn’t seemed to change - the first refill of the cheap generic I use was $0 co-pay.
Yes, there is a massive subsidy by Medicare for Part D plans.
Yeah, but has it gotten significantly bigger? We’re talking about a decrease in payments, which is odd since I thought the negotiated drug prices hadn’t kicked in yet - and I don’t use any on that list anyhow.
They can always manipulate their drug formulary–not covering certain drugs, putting drugs in a more expensive tier.
Did they change the situation concerning the donut hole this year [it’s supposed to go away eventually?]. If so that might have an effect.
What I read is that some drugs in the formulary are going to be cheaper, reducing what the insurance company has to pay. Just a few drugs can have a big impact. My lifetime supply of generic Warfarin probably costs less than a month’s work of some of the more advanced and expensive drugs.