In December, we learned that the average cost of a cancer therapy has gone up over the last few years.
But how much does the average American actually save by not having to pay for it?
It’s unclear, as we’re still waiting to see how many treatments are being covered by the Medicare Part D health insurance program.
But it’s not like we don’t know that Medicare will cover the full cost of the treatment.
It’s just that Medicare hasn’t yet said exactly how much it’s covering, and it’s unclear whether the cost-sharing amount will be $5,000 or $5 million.
To get a clearer picture of how much we save, we turned to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group that studies health care costs.
In an August report, Kaiser found that, for Medicare beneficiaries, Part D costs an average of $2,542 per month.
The report also estimated that, if Medicare and private insurers both provided coverage to cancer patients for the same number of months, Medicare would pay out $11,819,878.
Medicare Part B covers a similar amount, at $1,749 per month, but only about 1 in 5 Medicare beneficiaries has that coverage.
That means that for Medicare Part A, for example, we could save $2.2 billion per year.
Medicare and the private insurance companies, of course, are competing to get this money.
Medicare currently covers roughly 75% of the cost of cancer care for Medicare and Medicaid recipients, but it covers less than 40% of those costs for private insurance beneficiaries, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
The reason Medicare doesn’t cover cancer care is because Medicare pays for most of the costs out of its own money, meaning it doesn’t get to see the savings.
In addition, Medicare does not cover cancer treatment for children, or for people who are older than 65.
As a result, Medicare Part C and Medicaid cover a far greater share of cancer treatments than private insurance does.
For the most part, Medicare covers a much smaller share of the full costs of cancer treatment than private insurers do, with about 15% and 10% of costs, respectively.
The Kaiser report said that, with Part D coverage, the average Medicare beneficiary would save $1.8 million in 2018.
But this estimate includes only those Medicare beneficiaries who would be able to afford the full Part D cost-share, not those who would have to pay more than the standard Medicare Part E premium for the full benefit.
If you’re a Medicare beneficiary, and you’re going to pay the full premium, you’re likely to save more than $1 million, according the Kaiser report.
What about the cost sharing?
Medicare has said that it’s considering a plan that would include a $5-per-month charge for the cost share for Medicare recipients, or a $1-per, or $1 per month cost share.
The agency says that it would have an estimate by the end of the year, but that it hasn’t finalized its plan yet.
The proposal has been pushed back by the Affordable Care Act, which includes an option to pay a lower premium for Part D benefits, Kaiser said.
Medicare also said in February that it was considering a similar plan to the one proposed by the ACA, but would likely take another two years to implement.
If the ACA does not fully implement the Medicare plan, Medicare could be forced to make some of its savings on its own, according an earlier Kaiser report, which was based on information from the Congressional Budget Office.
The CBO has also said that the cost is still likely to be high enough that Medicare could not afford to make the payments on its part of the plan.
So far, Medicare has only said it’s looking at a cost-shared plan for Part C, which covers a fraction of Medicare’s costs, or about 1% of Medicare beneficiaries.
But there is no provision for Medicare to cover part D at all, according a separate Kaiser report from March.
If Medicare were to expand to cover all its costs, the program would have a deficit of $4.9 trillion in 2018, according Kaiser.
We asked Medicare if it would cover Part D for Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance, and the agency did not immediately respond.
A spokesperson told Healthline, “We are not discussing this matter.
The Affordable Care the ACA provides benefits to Medicare beneficiaries at no additional cost.
It is up to the Medicare program administrator to determine whether to expand the Medicare Benefits Program (MBP) coverage for Part B and C, and whether to make further changes to Part D.”
So the question is: Is there any savings to Medicare?
The answer is yes, but not quite as much as we might think.
Medicare says it would save between $2 and $3.5 billion by not covering part D for the first year of the ACA.
It would save about $4 billion a year by extending Part D to Medicare Part K, and $5 billion a
