Payments to draw on $2bn Medicare Improvement Fund
President Donald Trump said on social media late Friday that the US government will send a one-time $90 payment to more than 20 million Americans enrolled in Medicare, the health insurance program for elderly people. Trump said the payment was intended to help offset the cost of their monthly medical insurance premiums.
The White House released some details of Trump’s plan on its website, saying most eligible seniors will receive the payment through a direct deposit of $90 in early October. Seniors without direct deposit on file with Medicare will receive a paper check, also sent in early October, to the mailing address they have registered with Medicare, the White House said.
Trump said the payments would come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, which he said Congress had given $2 billion to improve the Medicare fee-for-service program.
The announcement is the latest in a series of financial promises Trump has made to voters ahead of the November midterm elections, in which control of Congress is at stake. Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in the US Senate and the House of Representatives, and his party is expected to lose congressional seats, The Guardian reported.
The Guardian reported that Trump’s approval rating has been low over his handling of the high cost of living for Americans during a US-Israeli war on Iran that the newspaper said has spiked oil and gas prices.
In September, Trump proposed sending $5,000 checks to all adult citizens if Republicans keep control of the House and Senate in the midterms — a plan that drew skepticism from analysts, economists, and even some Republicans in Congress, The Guardian reported.
The administration is separately sending $500 payments to nearly 1 million Americans, a step political strategists said could influence some election races. The administration described those payments as refunds for what it characterized as excessive fees charged to people who bought health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare law Congress enacted in 2010 during Barack Obama’s presidency.