Federal officials say Maine seniors and people with disabilities have saved $13.1 million on prescription drugs since President Obama’s health reform law was enacted in 2010.
The health care law has allowed Mainers in the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap known as the “doughnut hole” to save an average of $522 during the first eight months of this year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The health reform law, fiercely opposed by Republicans, calls for the doughnut hole to be closed by 2020. The law began phasing out the coverage gap in 2010, giving Medicare beneficiaries who hit the doughnut hole a $250 rebate. Last year, beneficiaries received discounts on generic drugs and some brand name medications.
The Affordable Care Act improves Medicare coverage for prescription drugs and provides seniors with preventive care at no cost. U.S. HHS touted a new report this week that found the law will save the average person with traditional Medicare coverage $5,000 from 2010 to 2022. People on Medicare who have high prescription medication costs will save more, around $18,000, over that period.
“I am pleased that the health care law is helping so many seniors save money on their prescription drug costs,” U.S. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stated in a recent press release. “A $5,000 savings will go a long way for many beneficiaries on fixed incomes and tight budgets.”
Nationally, more than 5.5 million people have saved nearly $4.5 billion on prescription drugs since the law was enacted, according to U.S. HHS.
The reform law also made a number of preventive health services, such as yearly wellness checks and colorectal cancer screenings, free to seniors without co-pays or deductibles. U.S. HHS said in February that the law provided more than 400,000 Maine residents with preventive care last year.
The Affordable Care Act has been vehemently opposed by Republicans, becoming a centerpiece issue in this year’s presidential campaign. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has vowed to repeal the law while keeping of its more popular provisions, saying the law harms businesses and represents a government takeover of health care.
Add this to the proposed directed profit’s from the State Liquor being put back into the State’s DHHS MaineCare system and we now have the beginning of a fully funded heathcare system that’s beyond the political manipulation, whining and crying we’ve seen and come to expect from the Maine Legislature. That also means that Maine could now take full advantage of any matching or percentage Federal plan’s or program’s that can help Maine when it’s called for like the annual flu shot shortage or, more seriously, the current EEE outbreak that is, due to nature, going to probably run out of gas here in Northern Maine with the colder nights and frost coming.
It also means that Mainer’s can, a lot sooner than originally thought, start looking at their perscription bill’s start coming down since the savings are coming from increased efficiency and competiton, like the CanaRX Program that even LePage, incredible as it may seem, is showing public support for in the face of the Maine Pharmacy Lobby’s claims of doom and gloom. Even LePage knows full well that a voter that can’t vote BECAUSE THEY ARE SICK is a voter that’s going to remember that fact, and who was behind it, the next time the voting comes around. Reform is both a process but is also driven by historical memory. And nothing stays with you like being sick when your vote is needed by the people who are trying to get you the health care you need and deserve. The GOP, in a sad commentary, has somehow forgotten that fact. Maybe it’s time that they stepped back and took a serious, and very sobering, look back at their own history and what they stood for years ago.
Save us 13 million in healthcare but how much will it cost us for the funerals?
Elaborate please.
Well if the government cuts health care, which would be all good and well if the tax payers were to get that back in their pockets, we won’t, the government will use it on their raises saying we have lived without it so might as well keep on living without it.
Then people will start dying from lack of medical care and someone is going to have to pay to bury them, who would that be? Us.
I just received my prescription plan for next year and guess what! Most co-pays are doubling for next year. 2012 co pay $4.00 now $8.00. Last year $12.00 next year $24.00. Last year zero next year $5.00. Maybe the “new” math this is a savings but my “old” math mind doesn’t really think that is correct.