What REALLY happens when the donut hole goes away?

[Newby]

Change is always good for agents who are actively selling. Stirs up the base.

Doesn't matter if it's good change or bad change. It's always good for us.

 

[WCMason]

This is pretty much what I have been thinking and telling clients when it comes up. Everything is just speculation until it actually happens.

Everything related to Medicare is controlled by politics, and 2020 is still 2 years and one more election cycle away... That is a lifetime in politics and a lot can still happen/change.

Yeah, I get that it is retail. You missed my subtlety.

Real question is, how much is retail?

This old drug was free. Now it's $109,500 a year.

I did miss it. Those issues about what the full cost is won’t go away, that is true.

The structure, and problems with, the Part D benefit isn’t changing after 2020. The only change between now and 2020 and beyond is that the currently declining threshold of when the gap is reached will stay at 25% once we get to 2020. There does seem to be some confusion over whether that stage will disappear. It won’t.