The entire Medicare Part D plan was written for the Republican Congress by the pharmaceutical companies. And, YES, if you are living on a fixed income, and you are on Medicare, it's pretty bad.

One of the provisions of that plan is that there will be no discounting of medications: so people, and Medicare, are paying full price for meds that might be 90% less expensive in other countries, because those other countries DO get discounts from those same pharmaceutical companies.

If you can't discount, you are going to hit the donut hole much faster. Many people are on a number of expensive meds.

Let's say you are a 75 year old person, and the retail price (which is what is charged for your meds) on a monthly basis is $1000. That is NOT hard to hit at retail: a 30 day supply of a med I had ordered for pain after a car accident was, all by itself, $250.

Let's also say that your Social Security payments are $1200 monthly. Not at all an uncommon amount--many get less. So, suddenly, from your $1200 a month, you now have to pay $450 for medication, bringing you a total of $750 a month for everything else.

It's a bad plan. Written, quite frankly, by bad people.