More Than 3 Million Seniors Will Fall Into Medicare Donut Hole in 2008

More Than 3 Million Seniors Will Fall Into Donut Hole in 2008

by James Parks, Dec 26, 2007

This will not be a happy New Year for millions of seniors. More seniors than ever are expected to fall into the Medicare Part D donut hole in 2008, the coverage gap that requires seniors to pay the full cost of their prescription drugs, according to the Alliance for Retired Americans.

Under the Medicare Part D rules pushed by the Bush administration and passed by Congress in 2003, seniors are on the hook for prescription expenses between the annual amounts of $2,510 and $5,726 in 2008. This gap of more than $3,200 has been dubbed the “donut hole.” The total costs for seniors in the donut hole, when you add in deductibles and co-pays, will hit $4,050, about $200 more than in 2007, the Alliance says.

More than 3 million of the 24 million Part D enrollees will have to pay the $4,050 in out-of-pocket expenses before Medicare kicks back in and provides catastrophic-care coverage, paying 95 percent of those prescription costs.