Medicare Part D - Prescription Drug Plan Coverage in South Carolina

For instant help with your prescription drug plans, fill out a SC Prescripton Part D quote request and enter "Prescriptions" in the "Comments" box.

One of the most challenging parts of Medicare is selecting a suitable prescription drug plan and ensuring that you have the best available coverage for your specific medications.

In reality, if you are on more than a couple of medications, your prescription drugs probably represent the majority of your healthcare costs.

The Medicare Part D prescription drug plans available in South Carolina have been the source of much frustration, since they began in 2003, due to the dreaded "donut hole" and general confusion about what the plans cover.

Last but not least, one of the sources of anxiety is the short, once-a-year enrollment period (Nov. 15-Dec. 31). You can only sign up for a plan during that once-a-year time period, unless you are in a special enrollment period.

The way the Part D plans work is (*numbers as of 6/1/2009):

Customer pays applicable deductible (some plans have one, some don't)
Customer pays co-pays for medications up until $2,700 of full drug costs (true cost before cost-sharing).
After $2,700 is reached, customer pays full price for most medications under most plans.
After $4,350 in full drug costs is reached, the coverage dramatically improves and the bulk of the cost-sharing is the responsibility of the insurance company.

The factor that most complicates the prescription drug insurance part of Medicare for many people is the abundance of plans and the non-standardization of coverage. For example, in SC, our home state, there are 55+ plans and each plan covers different medications to different degrees.

The ONLY way to be sure that you are on the plan that is most advantageous to your specific medications is to do a prescription drug analysis. You can do this yourself on http://www.medicare.gov or contact us to help you with it. If you email us your medications , we will provide the analysis for you. We have seen people save over $3,000/year on their medications just by switching to a plan that better covers their specific medications. It is definitely worth your time to do that analysis on an annual (or at least bi-annual basis).