Most Medicare drug plans (Part D) have a temporary limit on what they will cover for prescription drugs, or a “coverage gap.” The good news is that all Medicare drug plans provide coverage if you have an unexpected illness or injury that results in extremely high drug costs.

This is called “catastrophic” Medicare coverage . It assures that once you have paid $4,550 (in 2010) out-of-pocket for drug costs in a calendar year, almost all of your drug costs above that amount are covered. If your plan has a coverage gap during the time between a drug plan’s standard level of coverage and the catastrophic coverage, you pay all of your drug costs.