I just did the annual prescription drug (Medicare Part D) shopping for my spouse - wow, has the landscape changed. [View all]

[Ms. Toad]

Last year, she saved $600+ by enrolling in the plan with the cheapest premium and buying half of her drugs from Costco mail order without using her insurance.

This year the prescription drug prices under insurance are considerably lower. She can only save $6 on the two cheapest plans by buying through Costco without insurance - probably not worth the hassle of remembering which meds we use insurance for and which ones we don't. Especially since the $6 goes toward the $2000 out of pocket cap - in case she has another expensive med change mid-year .

This past year she added two drugs (one expensive, one not) and her total anticipated out-of-pocket this year will still be $300 cheaper than last year.

Now we have to decide whether the Costco membership is worth buying - since the drug savings alone covered the membership cost (and it won't this year). Probably yes, since we buy most of our gas there (it tends to be $.20/gallon cheaper than others most of the time) - over a year it probably saves us $100 or so.

(My med costs are a couple hundred a year - so I doubt my plan will change, but Medicare.gov is being stinky at the moment and refuses to recognize our zip code so I can't absolutely confirm that. Sure hope they get it fixed by the Saturday deadline!)