The Prescription Drug Playbook (Full Version)

Let's start with Jeannie Chamberlain.

Jeannie's from North Carolina, and she regularly talks with folks who take like 15 different meds every day.

You're like, oh, my gosh.

And literally where the retail costs are $20,000 a month.

Jeannie is an

expert twice over.

Since retiring from a career managing hospitals and medical groups, she has been helping her fellow seniors figure out how to manage what they pay for health care as a county level volunteer coordinator for a program called SHIP.

And SHIP stands for Seniors Health Insurance Information Program.

Actually, in some cases, it stands for State Health Insurance Assistance Program.

Whatever you want to call it, it's a federally funded program that helps seniors with all things Medicare.

And every state has its own version of SHIP.

During the busy season that's in the fall when people can pick new insurance for the coming year, Jeannie says she and her team speak to more than 100 people a week.

And one thing that comes up in basically all of those conversations is this question.

Can I change things to get my meds for less next year? Jeannie says one year, her team added up the impact of those conversations and half the people ended up changing plans.

And on average, they saved $300 a person.

Not bad.

But there were many, many people who saved $1,000, $2,000, even $10,000 by changing from one Medicare plan to another based entirely on the cost of their drugs.

Jeannie wrote to tell us about what she knows from helping people enroll in Medicare.

But she also had an instructive personal story to share because even experts have to scramble sometimes.

So a while ago, when Jeannie's husband had a gut infection, he got prescribed two antibiotics.

His insurance coverage meant one was going to cost him 30 bucks.

But the other one, his plan didn't cover it.

And, uh,

It was $1,200 for a 14-day supply.

And it was just obscenely expensive.