Montanans save nearly $30 million on prescriptions since 2010

 The Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that Montana’s Medicare patients have saved more than $29 million on prescription drugs since the Affordable Care Act went into effect.

The Affordable Care Act had a multi-faceted rollout since 2010, and the prescription drugs were one of the first things to be affected by the controversial health care law.

The $29,382,359 in savings the department estimated in Montana comes from those seniors and people with disabilities using Medicare to get prescriptions.

Nationally, the Department of Health and Human Services claims Medicare patients have saved $11.5 billion since 2010.

The savings come from closing the “doughnut hole” in Medicare Part D, which previously had beneficiaries paying the full cost of their medicines before catastrophic coverage took effect.

The hole is the gap, which could be hundreds of dollars, between full Medicare coverage and the catastrophic coverage.

Nationally, 8.2 million seniors and disabilities have saved out-of-pocket money averaging $1,407 a person. 

In 2010, any Medicare patient reaching the doughnut hole was issued a $250 rebate. In 2011, doughnut-hole patients began receiving discounts on generic and certain brand-name drugs.

The doughnut hole will not be fully closed until 2020, the department said.

This year, people with Medicare prescription drug plans can expect 53 percent savings on the cost of name brand drugs and 28 percent on the cost of generic drugs.