The new Medicare prescription drug benefit will slash the average out-of-pocket spending for Colorado senior citizens by a third, to $793 next year, according to a study released Wednesday.
The program also will double the number of seniors in the state with prescription coverage, raising it to 98 percent, the PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd. report said.
The most dramatic savings would come for seniors with big drug bills.
The average Medicare participant spending $10,000 annually for drugs, with no insurance coverage, would see out-of-pocket payments drop to $3,845.
The report was commissioned by Medicare Today, a nonpartisan coalition of 200 groups that include physician associations, unions, senior-citizen organizations and drugstore chains.
The government’s new prescription drug plan for the elderly and disabled begins Jan. 1.
The program will cost an estimated $1 trillion in the coming decade and is the most sweeping overhaul of Medicare since it started more than 40 years ago.
Medicare members can begin signing up for the new drug coverage Nov. 15.
In Colorado, 17 private companies are offering Medicare drug-benefit plans. Monthly premiums range from $8.62 to $65.88, and each covers different drugs. Several HMO plans are also offering drug coverage as part of a broader benefits package.
Senior groups are ramping up outreach efforts, but confusion is high and many elderly are hesitant to enroll, said Eileen Doherty, president of the Colorado Gerontological Society.
“People are extremely confused,” said Doherty, who is hosting a series of informational seminars on the drug benefit, also known as Medicare Part D.
“The biggest challenge continues to be to help people understand, to get them to the point of decision making,” she said.
About 52 percent of the state’s 498,000 Medicare beneficiaries currently have no catastrophic prescription drug coverage.
About one-third are low-income and eligible for federal subsidies to cover the new drug benefit’s cost, the study found.
Staff writer Marsha Austin can be reached at 303-820-1242 or maustin@denverpost.com.
