I'm trying to help my mom change her part D drug plan that she's enrolled in. Where would be the first place you would think you go? The Medicare website, right?



WRONG.



You can log in there and see what you're enrolled in, but you can't change your enrollment. Wonderful. That makes a lot of sense. So I do a Google Search and find this mess of a website that's also run by Medicare, but from which you can find and compare drug plans. Do you think you'd sign up with the same credentials as you would for the regular Medicare site? Pshaw. That would make too much sense. Instead, you enter your name, medicare number, birthday, etc. and *then* it takes you further. Great. So I finally get to comparing plans, and it doesn't give the same results as the last time I checked for her a couple of weeks ago. After clicking around for a while, the webpage finally times out.



I start over, and every single time, it takes me back to the initial sign-up page where I have to enter ALL the personal info bullshit even though I "logged on" already. Every. Single. Time. Why? do I have to log in a bunch? Because the webpage comes back with an error saying they're having technical difficulties. It's 9 o'clock on a Sunday night, and open enrollment has been open for a while. I'm sure all the seniors are sleeping now anyway, so WTF is their website going down like a cheap hooker?



I shudder to think what will happen when Obamacare goes into effect.

Oh, it gets better...



It finally starts working again. Hooray. I still get the list out of whack with what I got last time. So I start looking at the details. I'm going by memory, but here's what I saw when I said "List in order from cheapest to most expensive":

Current plan: $1450/year

Plan A: $1380/year

Plan B: $1390/year

...

Plan G: $1480/year (this is the one that previously showed as cheapest).



When I looked at the detail for Plan A, it was $12.90/year, $310 deductible, and $303 for mail order pharmacy. That doesn't add up to $1380/year. Plan G is $55/month, no deductible, free drugs. That makes it about $690/year, NOT $1480/year.



What.

The

Fuck.



Their website can't even get the list of plans by order of lowest cost correct. How in the hell do old(er) people figure this out when the website that is set up to help them figure it out provides wrong and misleading information?

The government. Here to help.