Then where do you think the private insurance company comes in? Because I was forced to, I pay monthly premiums to one to cover prescription drugs under Plan D. The price of those prescriptions spiralled immediately. (The whole purpose for the bill) I pay the entirety of my prescriptions until I hit the $265 deductible. Then I pay the difference that the insurance company does not pay. The government pays nothing for my prescriptions.
Private insurance coverage can supplement the prescription drug plan. The individual in question pays a premium to the Plan D program and Medicare pays his drug costs. He pays what Medicare does not. I went over every Plan D option with a representative of my father’s private insurance company. The notion that this is an absolute fiscal disaster in the making is not news. Practically every Conservative free market think tank opposed this plan vehemently with many calling it the worst piece of legislation in decades. Mike Pence and a few brave souls from the Republican Study Committee opposed this, but most Republicans caved. For a more complete picture of the coming fiscal mess this is going to bring on us, check out this study by the Cato Institute:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp91.pdf
Sorry to keep dragging this out, but I paid into Medicare for 40 years. Hefty premiums for Medicare come out of my monthly Social Security checks. I did not want the Med.D prescription drug coverage to begin with. As I said before, I think it is a sop to the pharmaceutical companies, who raised the price of my prescription immediately after I met the deductible on the additional monthly insurance premium on my plan B coverage, which is very expensive to begin with. Gotto go. Thanks for the help.