The donut hole closing provision of the Affordable Care Act is working, the Department of Health and Human Services reports, and has
saved seniors more than $460 million so far.
As part of the reform law, the pharmaceutical industry agreed to offer a 50 percent discount for brand-name prescription drugs in the Medicare “doughnut hole” — the coverage gap in which seniors pay for their drugs out of pocket.
Nearly 900,000 seniors have received that discount, at a total savings of $461 million, according to HHS.
The department also said premiums for prescription drug coverage will decrease slightly next year. The average premium will fall roughly $1, holding steady at around $30, according to an HHS release.
The insurance industry touted the success of Medicare’s prescription drug program — which many conservative policy experts see as a good model for other parts of the healthcare system.
AHIP says that it's all about the competition, and Part D and "Medicare drug plans’ efforts to encourage seniors to choose the most affordable medicines." That will likely be the insurers' response if one of the means of saving Medicare money that deficit negotiations come up with is going back to the prescription drug well. President Obama and congressional Democrats have talked about what would be a huge cost-saver for the program: prescription drug price negotiation. AHIP and PhRMA combined will fight that one tooth and nail, which is really the only downside to this report from HHS—they can say they're already saving seniors money, and don't need to give up more ground.