President Donald Trump plans to send one-time $90 checks to more than 20 million Medicare recipients, using a $2 billion federal fund to help cover their Part B premiums about a month before the midterm elections.
The White House announced the payments Friday, saying Trump would draw on the Medicare Improvement Fund, which Congress created in 2008. Most Part B enrollees would qualify, except those whose premiums are already paid by Medicaid, according to a White House fact sheet released Wednesday. The fund has never been used to make direct payments to beneficiaries, the administration said.
“President Trump believes that Medicare Improvement Funds should be used to directly help people on Medicare, not special interests, and is returning healthcare dollars back into the hands of the American people to benefit them and their individual healthcare needs,” the fact sheet states.
“President Trump is enabling Americans to take control of their health by putting money directly back in the hands of Medicare patients,” Schuster told The Daily Caller. “In addition to guaranteeing discounted prices on prescription drugs through his Most-Favored-Nation drug pricing agreements, distributing $500 Obamacare Refund checks, and increasing price transparency across the board, President Trump is delivering on his promise to lower costs for American patients by putting them first and taking on the special interests that have used the status quo in Washington to raise healthcare costs for Americans.”
The payments come as Trump faces dissatisfaction with his handling of health care, including among rural voters who helped return him to office in 2024. A September survey found that 54 percent of rural voters nationwide disapproved of his approach to the issue.
A White House official, citing the Council of Economic Advisers, said Trump’s actions and the TrumpRX program are expected to reduce drug prices by about $600 billion over the next decade. A spokesperson for the Senate Aging Committee declined to comment on the record.
Congress established the Medicare Improvement Fund through the Supplemental Appropriations Act, signed by President George W. Bush nearly two decades ago. The Trump administration said its decision to use the money for beneficiary checks follows efforts to curb fraud in federal health programs.
The White House fact sheet says the Trump Administration “is cracking down on fraud and corruption … and has taken the strongest actions to protect the integrity of the exchanges, including ending loopholes used to fraudulently enroll individuals.”
In June, the Justice Department announced what it described as a record health-care fraud action, alleging $6.5 billion in fraud and seeking charges against 455 people. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also moved to suspend 1,079 providers and revoke billing privileges for another 1,403.
Investigators working with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General determined that more than $10 billion paid into a Medicare trust fund had gone to fraudulent providers, according to the June announcement.
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