Glossary
The coverage gap (the "donut hole")
A stage of Part D drug coverage where you once paid a larger share of costs. It was removed starting in 2025.
The coverage gap, known for years as the donut hole, was a stage in Medicare Part D where your share of drug costs jumped once total spending passed a certain point, and then dropped again after you spent enough to reach catastrophic coverage. It caught people mid-year, often with no warning, and it is the reason many households learned to dread the autumn. The gap was removed starting on 1 January 2025. Part D now runs in three stages instead of four: a deductible stage, an initial coverage stage, and a catastrophic stage. Alongside that change, there is now a yearly limit on what you pay out of pocket for covered Part D drugs, and that limit is adjusted each year. This matters to you because much of the older advice still in circulation describes a stage that no longer exists. For the current year's figures, medicare.gov is the source of record.