Drug plans are good if you have a chronic condition and are taking a lot of drugs. If you are healthy it may be much cheaper to go without a drug plan. Ask your surgeon what pain meds he will prescribe, the dose and the quantity. If you pay cash it will be less than half what many drug stores chains will charge for the same drugs.
Check out Amazon, Costco, or Walmart. Also grocery stores like Krogers can be even cheaper. Sometimes their prices are less than the co-pay. Be careful of CVS. They say they accept GoodRX and SingleCare but then raise the price.
Great advice.
But if you need expensive drugs for future issues you are all out of pocket! Unless you sign up within two months of loss of other coverage you will be penalized 1% of $34 for every month you didn’t pay premiums for the rest of your time on Medicare...