Michael Burgess: “we heard a lot last spring about the voluntary Part D prescription drug program that seniors had available to them for…”

“we heard a lot last spring about the voluntary Part D prescription drug program that seniors had available to them for the first time. We haven't heard much about it recently, but it is important to revisit the concept because of two aspects. One is the open enrollment period, which is going to begin the middle of November and run through the end of the year; and the other is to address the fact that some seniors are coming upon what is called the coverage gap. They have received enough help in the prescription drug program, and they have come into a period of spending where they are expected to cover the whole cost of their prescription drug components until they get up to a catastrophic level, after which they will only be responsible for 5 percent of their drug expenditures. Mr. Speaker, last spring when we talked about the Medicare prescription drug program back home, I would tell my constituents to focus on cost, coverage and convenience. If cost is your biggest driver, then look for the plan that has the lowest cost. That is pretty easy to do if you have got a computer and can go to Medicare.gov and scroll through the various computer screens of the plans out there. In my State in Texas, there were some 48 different plans and combinations of plans that were available, but it is pretty easy to pick out the ones that are the lowest cost.”