LEWISTON – Arnold and Chris Woolf sit in their dining room. A basket of yellow pill bottles overflows onto the table.
Nodding to the basket, Arnold Woolf says, “There’s a lot of money tied up in there.”
Between them, the couple take a total of 17 medications. They pay about $100 a month. Some are samples their doctors give them. Most others they get at a discount through a state program.
All of that is about to change.
The way Woolf figures it, he and his wife will have to start paying more for their prescription drugs – much more. And no more handouts from the doctors.
The new premiums alone amount to one-third of the total price they have been paying for their medications.
“I’d rather leave it the way it was,” he says.
The federal Medicare Part D program is set to go into effect on Jan. 1. It’s aimed at giving seniors a break on drugs costs.
Woolf doesn’t believe it. Plus, it’s confusing. So confusing that Woolf, who is a trained accountant, has been studying the booklet they sent him for three months. He has called all the insurance companies listed.
“It’s so frustrating. I’ve been spending hours on the phone and really getting nowhere,” he says.
He still doesn’t know which plan to pick.
It’s not surprising.
Maine seniors have 41 options offered by 18 insurance companies. They vary as to which drugs they will cover and how much they’ll cost. Dollar amounts for deductibles, co-pays and premiums differ for each plan. One insurer only covers generics, another, only brand-name drugs. Some plans only include some of the medications the Woolfs take.
Moreover, none of the plans pays any part of a person’s total annual drug costs over $2,250 but less than $5,100.
For the Woolfs, whose only income is their combined $1,500 a month from Social Security, the future is daunting.
“I don’t know how we’re going to do it,” he said.
Stopping medication to save $23
They applied for Medicaid. Had their income been $12 a year less, they would have qualified. In that case, the state would have picked the best plan for them automatically and, except for co-pays, would have paid for deductibles, premiums and all other costs.
At age 77, his health is poor. He points to the adjoining living room. “I can’t walk from here to there without shortness of breath,” he says.
He had back surgery last month. A disc was pressing on nerves. Two months before that, he suffered a heart attack. Doctors found two blocked arteries behind his heart. They were inoperable and must be treated with medication. A stent props open another of the arteries. And Woolf is diabetic.
He has already learned that whatever plan he picks may not cover a new drug his cardiologist might prescribe on his next visit. And, he knows that under the Medicare Part D program, the insurance company can discontinue offering coverage for any particular drug under its plan anytime it wants.
His wife, 71, needs oxygen pumped into her diseased lungs. A clear plastic tube runs under her nose then snakes down onto her lap and across the carpet into the hallway. A bowl of bubbling water attached to the oxygen tank humidifies the air she breathes.
She takes drugs for rheumatism. She also has high cholesterol and triglycerides, but stopped taking that medication three months ago to save the $23 a month, she says.
They live day to day, forgoing whatever they can’t afford at the time. No extras. That means a grandchild might not get a birthday present at Christmas.
“I’m going to live as long as God wants me to. But it’s the idea that you can’t really live these days, not when you’re a senior,” she says.
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