On Friday, President Donald Trump announced that the federal government is making one-time payments of $90 per person for more than 20 million people to help them pay for Medicare Part B premiums.
These payments are coming from the Medicare Improvement Fund, which is meant to make improvements to the Medicare fee-for-service program and has been given $2 billion by Congress. Eligible seniors will receive the payment via a direct deposit in early October.
According to a fact sheet, those whose premiums are paid by Medicaid or who pay an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount don’t qualify for payments. Those enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans also aren’t eligible.
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This one-time payment likely won’t do much when it comes to offsetting rising healthcare costs, noted Juliette Cubanski, vice president and director of the Program on Medicare Policy at KFF, in a recent post.
Currently, Medicare’s standard Part B premium is $2,435 and is expected to increase by $79 annually for 2027, according to KFF. This means that “this increase alone would consume most of the $90 payment,” Cubanski noted. In addition, beneficiaries will likely see healthcare costs rise in other ways, such as deductibles and cost sharing for medical and drug benefits.
Cubanski also compared these $90 payments to a similar proposal announced by Trump ahead of the 2020 election, which involved a $200 drug card to offset out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries.
“The cards were to be provided under a Section 402 demonstration designed to test whether lowering out-of-pocket drug costs would improve medication adherence, reduce unnecessary health care use, and lower Medicare spending,” Cubanski said. “Ultimately, the drug cards were never sent, amid questions about the design of the experiment and its nearly $8 billion projected cost.”
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Cubanski noted that the $90 payments will mostly deplete the Medicare Improvement Fund.
These payments also come after the Trump administration announced in September $500 refunds per person to nearly 1 million Americans with Affordable Care Act coverage. One healthcare expert previously told MedCity News that these checks will do little to address healthcare affordability.
“There is no question that $500 matters to a family struggling to pay its bills, and Americans are struggling,” said Dr. Adam Brown, an emergency physician and founder of ABIG Health. “Healthcare costs are a significant part of that burden. But we have to put this refund into context. For someone paying the full cost of an ACA plan, $500 doesn’t even cover one month’s average premium. … Ultimately, we shouldn’t confuse a check with a healthcare affordability strategy.”
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