Drug plans available without deductible

The Thursday letter “Obamacare failed diabetic patient” from Eric Tubbs cited a “Medicare deductible” of $3,700 for drugs. I believe he confused the deductible with the “initial coverage.”

Medicare drug plans are widely available with no deductible, or $250 deductibles. Initially, until a certain drug cost level is reached, $3,700 in 2017, medications are largely paid for by the drug plan.

Following this, the person is in the coverage gap, or “doughnut hole,” and until a larger sum, an additional $4,950, is incurred on medications, the coverage is only about 50 percent. After that, the same medication cost to the patient is only 5 percent, called “catastrophic coverage.”

I personally experience this, hitting the doughnut hole in January, with a cost of more than $2,700 emerging in February only after paying another $800 for a life-saving leukemia medication. After that, my monthly cost is less than $350.

To fully understand the cost, one must remember Republicans agreed to the Medicare drug plans only if pharmaceutical companies could charge full price for drugs, unlike Medicaid or the VA drug plans, which are allowed to negotiate cost.

Finally, Medicare drug plans date back to 2003, and and precede Obamacare plans, which attempt to provide health-care coverage at a varying level of cost, to people of all ages, and might include prescription drug coverage.

Nancy Mily Columbus