When the Medicare program first became enacted in 1965, senior citizens (65 years and older) and other qualified people were only eligible for hospital insurance and outpatient services. It was only January 1, 2006 that the Medicare program began offering Medicare Part D, which may very well stand for Medicare Part "Drugs".
Since that time, this program has helped millions - it has even spawned a new whole new industry of insurance carriers that offer the Part D benefit. This is because Medicare recipients can only benefit from Part D if they enroll in a stand-alone Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) or a Medicare Advantage Plan with Prescription Drug coverage (MA-PD).
In fact, there are over 1,400 PDP and MA-PD plans that offer more or less of the same thing - coverage for prescription drugs - but are, however, not really the same.
Part D Plans Do Not Cover The Same
If you have Part A and/or Part B Medicare, then you can qualify for Medicare Part D. However, you should know that the coverage by current plans have not been standardized, and you can actually find that insurance plans have different decisions on:
The drugs or classes of drugs they wish to cover
The coverage amount
However, across all plans, certain drugs are specifically excluded by Medicare, including cough suppressant, benzodiazepines, and barbiturates. Thus, none of the current Part D plans will ever cover those drugs. For people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, the latter program pays for drugs not covered by Part D.
