JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 As the open enrollment period for many healthcare plans approaches, one local Medicare recipient is looking for answers after he received a letter in the mail showing major changes for his plan for next year \u2013 changes that will cost him more out of pocket. <\/p>\n
Action News Jax Madison Foglio spoke with the Jacksonville man who says this is going to make it harder for him to get his medication now.<\/p>\n
Dr. Gary L. Hunter Sr. J.D came to us with a letter outlining his upcoming Florida Blue Medicare plan. The letter shows some significant changes to his deductible, different programs options, and more that he was not expecting. We\u2019re trying to get him some answers.<\/p>\n
This letter it shows Gary Hunter\u2019s maximum out of pocket contribution would increase by $2,000,<\/p>\n
His over-the-counter quarterly allowance will no longer be offered\u2026.<\/p>\n
His Prescription Drug Coverage Deductible would go from $0 to $615 for tiers 3,4,5 drugs only. <\/p>\n
Fewer drugs he takes will be covered. And Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI) will no longer be offered.<\/p>\n
Hunter has been on Florida Blue Medicare for disability reasons since 2017. He says these changes would impact his ability to get his medication. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was paying a dollar and something for my oxycodone. Now I\u2019m going to be paying pretty close to $20 dollars,\u201d said Hunter.<\/p>\n
Hunter suspected this was due to the Big Beautiful Bill Congress passed earlier this year. We reached out to every local sitting U.S. Congressman, and both sitting Florida senators and asked them if this was true.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Congressman Aaron Bean (R-FL) team sent us this statement: <\/p>\n \u201cON BACKGROUND: These claims are completely unfounded\u2014the One Big Beautiful Bill made no changes to Medicare. This issue lies entirely with Florida Blue, and I encourage you to reach out to them directly.\u201d <\/p>\n Congressman Randy Fine (R-FL) team sent us this statement:<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s Working Families Tax Cut strengthens Medicare by eliminating waste and fraud to protect benefits for our seniors, and the deductible increase in the individual plan you\u2019re referring to isn\u2019t mandated by the government, it\u2019s an individual choice by the insurer. President Trump\u2019s fighting Biden-era inflation, which drove up everything from groceries to healthcare, and President Trump\u2019s Most Favored Nation agreements are already aligning U.S. drug prices with the world\u2019s lowest, saving 9 million Medicaid patients billions. Don\u2019t buy the Democrat spin blaming President Trump for their Obamacare mess, this is about building a healthier, wealthier America.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) team sent us this statement:<\/p>\n \u201cThe OBBB did not make any changes to Medicare and would not be the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 As the open enrollment period for many healthcare plans approaches, one local Medicare recipient is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[28,12229,12230,116,118,117,634,12231],"class_list":["post-13841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-florida","tag-florida_blue","tag-gary_hunter","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-local","tag-medicare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}