Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Spreading medical inflation

Yahoo: Seniors, get ready to dig deeper into your wallets, or to start shopping more.
More than 15 million people enrolled in the top 10 Medicare "Part D" prescription drug plans will face average premium hikes of 8 percent next year, according to a new analysis. Those top 10 plans account for more than 80 percent of enrollment in such drug plans, the Avalere Health consultancy found.
Five of the top prescription drug plans will see double-digit premium hikes next year.
Avalere also found that the average prescription drug plan premium in 2016 will top $40 per month for the first time in the federally subsidized program's history. If all Part D enrollees stay in their current plan, the average premium for all prescription drug plan would rise from $38.83 per month this year to $41.34 per month in 2016.
The findings come as rising prescription drug costs have drawn renewed attention from Congress and Democratic presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Trustees in the Medicare program said that in 2014, there was a 14 percent overall increase in the cost of Part D benefits, and a per-capita increase of 11 percent. The trustees singled out the very high prices of new specialty medication, including for hepatitis C, as a driving factor in the cost increases to Medicare.

It spreads.  Part D inflatuion overlaps with Obamacare hospital services inflation.  DC has put a huge demand bottleneck into the medical industry.

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