{"id":24660,"date":"2025-07-17T08:21:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=24660"},"modified":"2025-07-17T08:21:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:21:28","slug":"the-uncertain-future-of-medicares-stand-alone-prescription-drug-plan-market-and-why-it-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=24660","title":{"rendered":"The Uncertain Future of Medicare\u2019s Stand-Alone Prescription Drug Plan Market and Why It Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(By Juliette Cubanski and Tricia Neuman for KFF Health News Published: Jul 16, 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ahead of Medicare\u2019s annual mid-year announcement about the national average premium for Part D prescription drug coverage in 2026 and other plan details, two questions loom large for the insurers that sponsor Part D stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs) and the 23 million people in traditional Medicare who are currently enrolled in these plans: Will the Trump administration continue Medicare\u2019s Part D premium stabilization demonstration for a second year, and what will the PDP market look like in 2026 and in subsequent years? The answer to the first question could determine whether monthly PDP premiums remain at a relatively affordable level and whether PDP availability remains stable in 2026. The answer to the second question has larger implications for the viability of traditional Medicare as an option for beneficiaries nationwide but especially for beneficiaries who live in rural areas. This is because rural Medicare beneficiaries are more likely to be enrolled in traditional Medicare and rely more on drug coverage from stand-alone PDPs than Medicare Advantage plans.  Continue reading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/medicare\/issue-brief\/the-uncertain-future-of-medicares-stand-alone-prescription-drug-plan-market-and-why-it-matters\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/medicare\/issue-brief\/the-uncertain-future-of-medicares-stand-alone-prescription-drug-plan-market-and-why-it-matters\/\">here&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"147\" height=\"138\" class=\"wp-image-7499\" style=\"width: 147px;\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Kaiser-Family-Foundation.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><strong>Notice:<\/strong>\u00a0The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Juliette Cubanski and Tricia Neuman for KFF Health News Published: Jul 16, 2025) Ahead of Medicare\u2019s annual mid-year announcement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,21,9,15],"tags":[80,61,62,65,94],"class_list":["post-24660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cms","category-health-care-finance","category-medicare-advantage","category-part-dprescription-drugs","tag-cms","tag-medicare","tag-medicare-advantage","tag-medicare-part-d","tag-older-adults"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24661,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24660\/revisions\/24661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}