How we help
Part D drug plans
The plan with the lowest monthly price is frequently the most expensive plan you could choose. Here is how we work out which one is actually cheapest for you.
Why the premium tells you almost nothing
Every Part D plan publishes a formulary: the list of drugs it covers, and the tier each drug sits in. The same medication can be tier 2 on one plan and tier 4 on another. It can be covered at one pharmacy chain and cost more at the one on your corner.
We have seen a $0 plan cost someone $2,400 more across a year than a $38 plan, on the same three prescriptions. The premium is the smallest number in the calculation.
What we run for you
- Your exact list. Drug names, doses, and how often. Generic or brand, because it changes the answer.
- Your pharmacy. Most plans have preferred pharmacies where the same drug costs less. Mail order is often cheaper again, and sometimes it is not.
- Every plan sold in your county, priced across all twelve months rather than at January prices.
- The restrictions. Quantity limits, step therapy, and which drugs need approval before the plan will pay.
- Then we hand you the top three, with the yearly total for each, in writing.
What changed, and it is genuinely good
- A hard ceiling. In 2026, once you have paid $2,100 of your own money for covered drugs, you pay nothing more for the rest of the year. That is catastrophic coverage, and before 2025 it did not have a fixed cap.
- The doughnut hole is gone. The old coverage gap no longer exists.
- Insulin is capped at $35 a month per covered prescription.
- Recommended adult vaccines cost nothing, including shingles.
- You can spread the cost. The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan turns your pharmacy costs into monthly bills instead of one painful January. It does not reduce the total, and you have to ask for it.
The penalty follows you for life
If you go without creditable drug coverage after becoming eligible, Medicare adds 1% of the national base premium for every month you waited, and keeps adding it for as long as you have Part D. Someone who waits three years pays about a third more, forever.
This is why we tell people who take nothing at all to buy the cheapest plan in the county. It is a few dollars a month against a permanent surcharge and whatever gets prescribed next.
If the cost is still too much
Ask us about Extra Help. It pays most of the cost of a Part D plan and the income and savings limits are higher than people assume. If you qualify for a Medicare Savings Program, you get Extra Help automatically.
We help with both applications whether or not you buy anything from us, because it is the single largest amount of money we can save anyone.
Check it every fall
Formularies change every January. So do tiers, preferred pharmacies and premiums. A plan that was the best choice this year may not be next year, and the letter announcing it will not lead with the part that matters. That is what the yearly review is for.
Read us your prescriptions.
Have the bottles in front of you. Ten minutes on the phone and we will send you the three cheapest plans for your list, at your pharmacy, for the whole year.