Humana’s PDP membership shrinking

Humana projects it will lose 1.1 million to 1.2 million members from its stand-alone Medicare prescription drug plans in 2009, due mainly to sharply higher premiums. The estimate includes auto-assigned members who were reassigned to plans with premiums below the low-income benchmark and low-income members who had voluntarily chosen Humana's plans, but who have now left to find less expensive coverage. Humana has backed away from coverage for low-income seniors because that business is too much of a drain on profits (1"The Pink Sheet," Sept. 15, 2008, p. 26). The firm's stand-alone PDP membership now totals about 2.1 million