Medicare’s drug benefit (Part D) is drug coverage available through private companies. To get this coverage, you need to choose and enroll in a plan. Anyone with Medicare can enroll. You can enroll when you first sign up, or between November 15 and December 31 of each year (you can also switch Part D plans during this time).

If you want drug coverage and:

• you have Original Medicare and want to stay with it, choose a stand-alone plan that just offers drug coverage.
• you have a private health plan (an HMO or PPO) and you want to keep it, get drug coverage from that same company.

No. Enrollment in the benefit is optional. Whether it will help you depends on your circumstances.
If you have drug coverage as good as or better than Medicare’s (“creditable”) you can keep it without penalty. If you do not have coverage as good as Medicare’s, and you don’t enroll when you are first eligible, you will pay a penalty if you enroll later. Find out from whoever provides your coverage whether it is creditable.

Each private plan has different costs. With most you pay a monthly premium, an annual deductible ( no more than $265 in 2007), and part of the cost of each prescription (copayments or coinsurances) until you have paid a certain amount. Then you will likely have to pay the full cost of your drugs for a period of time (coverage gap). If you spend up to the annual ceiling in out-of-pocket drug costs ($3,850 in 2007), you will then pay just 5 percent for each prescription (plus the premium). If your income is very low, you can get Extra Help to pay for most of these costs (see below).

Each plan will have its own list of covered drugs (formulary) with different costs. You will have to pay the full cost of non-covered drugs and for prescriptions from out-of-network pharmacies.

It depends on your current coverage. Call the company that provides your coverage to find out if and how it will work with the Medicare drug benefit.

You can first enroll when you become eligible for Medicare. You can enroll in or change plans during the Annual Coordinated Election Period (Nov. 15 to Dec. 31). If you do not enroll when first eligible, and do not have drug coverage as good as Medicare’s benefit (“creditable”), you may pay a penalty. If you qualify for Extra Help, you will not have to pay a penalty if you enroll in 2007.

You can visit www.medicare.gov or call 800-MEDICARE        (633-4227) or www.medicarerights.org/help.html for easy-to-understand Medicare information.