Health Care Reform Returns Surprising $1.5 Billion Medicare Savings (The Daily Beast)

Check one thing off the list of Medicare reform measures: the closing of the “doughnut hole,” the gap between the cost of prescription drugs and the amount covered by Medicare. Under Obama’s health care reform plan, drug makers were required to sell all drugs in the doughnut hole — any priced between $2,800 and $4,550 — at a 50 percent discount. This has meant significant savings for seniors, totaling about $1.5 billion dollars saved programwide. What’s the next, much-needed step? A measure to tackle the systemic abuse by providers who bill for services never provided.