Medicare Part D choices for 2025 - 13 November 2024

I reviewed the new (2025) Medicare Plan D drug plan options a month or so ago, when the information first came out, and I just re-reviewed them all.  In 2024, I have a plan that is $3.30/month and the drugs I use are at no additional cost.  For 2025, that same plan goes up to $36/month and the drugs now come at an added cost for an annualized total of $908.  Yes, the plan goes from about $50/year to $900/year.  Naturally, I looked at other plans.  

I found two that are zero cost.  Yep, $0/month and $0 for the drugs.  It is worthy of onte that one has Costco as the preferred pharmacy and the other has Bartell as the preferred pharmacy; the drugs have cost at the non-preferred pharmacy, and both offer no-cost drugs by mail.  Finally, the third cheapest option is also $0/month but the drugs cost about $50/yr.  

I conclude that I am the product.

If the plan costs nothing and the drugs cost nothing, then my information is being collected to be bought and sold.  Yeah, there is HIPAA "to protect me" but I am sure they have clever ways to, uh, comply while still selling information.  

The nine plans available to me run between $0 and $2150 (annualized).  At that top end, there is no deductible, but it is about $600 more expensive than the next most expensive - and the deductible is about $600.  Strange, that.

I assume I will spend the rest of my life on this merry-go-round, chasing low-cost options each year, and getting "collected" by various insurance companies each time I switch.