medicare part d

Simply the fact of no more paychecks can make retirement hard enough, but rising health care costs can really compound the difficulty of what should be your golden years. Fortunately there's help, in the form of Medicare -- in particular, Medicare Part D for prescription drugs. Here's what you need to know about this critical benefit, which can save you thousands of dollars a year.

The seemingly impossible is happening in health care. A cost is going down, not up. The government today announced that lucky beneficiaries of the decline are Medicare recipients who take additional coverage from private insurers. The cost for that coverage will decline 1% in 2011. Even better,...

Sometime in August, Patricia Holland will drop into Medicare's dreaded doughnut hole. She is already bracing for that financial wallop. Holland, 67, of Centreville, Md., regularly takes seven prescription medications. One of them -- Entocort -- is especially expensive. It prevents severe attacks...

Many seniors will see their Social Security check go down because their Medicare Part D (prescription plans) and their Medicare Part C (also known as Medicare Advantage) plans are expected to go up in cost. Since Social Security is not expected to provide a cost of living increase (COLA) this year...