President Trump, eager to get Republican support from older Americans in the upcoming election, just took approximately $1.8 from the Medicare Improvement Fund to gift $90 to roughly 20.8 million older adults in traditional Medicare. To be eligible for the money, the older adults must be living in the US, cannot be enrolled in Medicare Advantage or Medicaid premium assistance programs, nor can they be paying higher income-adjusted Medicare Part B premiums.
The Medicare Improvement Fund, enacted in 2008, was intended by Congress to make improvements to traditional Medicare, not to be used as a handout for older adults. The thought was that it could be used to raise payments to physicians and hospitals or to improve benefits in traditional Medicare by paying for coverage of new services and treatments. Rebates to people in Medicare were not contemplated.
The Trump administration claims that “the best way to improve Medicare is to put healthcare dollars back where they belong,” with the people enrolled in Medicare. If that’s the case, then the Trump administration should be eliminating the $76 billion in overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans this year alone and putting more than $40 billion back in the hands of people with Medicare.
People eligible to receive the rebate will get it around October 8, by direct deposit. If they don’t have an account for direct deposit, they will receive a check in the mail towards the end of October. They will also receive a letter or email from the President. If you have questions or would like to know about the status of your payment, you can call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 beginning October 15.
This is the first time that the Medicare Improvement Fund has been used to pay older adults directly. In the past, President Obama took $20.7 from the fund to help pay for the Affordable Care Act plans and Congress has drawn from the Improvement Fund to offset new Medicare spending.
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