Your Medicare Money, His Campaign-Friendly Email

The government took about $2 billion out of a Medicare fund, sent $90 to some of the people who pay into it, and then emailed them as if the president had found the money himself.

On October 8 the administration issued about 20 million direct deposits of $90 and mailed 875,000 paper checks, a White House official told USA TODAY. Recipients got emails with the subject line "A message from President Trump." The text, obtained by the paper, says the best way to improve Medicare is to put healthcare dollars "directly in the hands of the American People," and that they are getting a one-time $90 "to offset some of the cost of your October Medicare premium."

October premiums do not go away. The standard Part B bill is about $200 a month. Ninety dollars covers less than half of one month, once. It does not change the premium. CMS says 20.8 million people in Original Medicare Part B qualify if they live in the United States, do not have Medicaid paying the premium, and are not in the higher-income surcharge bracket. Medicare Advantage, more than half of beneficiaries according to KFF, is out. So are about 12 million low-income people whose premiums Medicaid already covers. USA TODAY notes that less than a third of the nation's 70 million Medicare enrollees are getting the money. AP puts the cost at about $2 billion.

The pot is the Medicare Improvement Fund, created by Congress in 2008. The statute says it is for "improvements under the original Medicare fee-for-service program," including adjustments to payments for items and services furnished by providers. The White House fact sheet says the fund "has never before been utilized." CMS says Trump is the first president to use it to make Medicare more affordable for enrollees, and that Congress has withdrawn from it around 20 times, including $20.7 billion to help pay for the Affordable Care Act. AP's version is cleaner: previous administrations have not used it this way, but Congress has raided it. Larry Levitt at KFF says the language is broad and gives the administration substantial discretion. That is not a finding that this is illegal. It is a finding that they located a pot labeled "improve Medicare," turned it into branded $90 notes, and called the raid a reform.

In the same stretch he has been sending $500 ACA refunds and promising a $5,000 "Trump Dividend" if Republicans keep Congress, a pledge AP says would likely cost more than $1 trillion and needs a law. Sen. Ron Wyden called the $90 "one tank of Trump-inflated gas." That is a Democrat talking. The arithmetic does not need him. A one-time ninety dollars, an email with the president's name on it, and a fund Congress set aside to fix the program, not to put him in the subject line four weeks before a vote.

Seniors who got the deposit should keep it. Ninety dollars is ninety dollars on a fixed income. The problem is a government that cannot lower the premium, so it stamps the president on a rebate and hopes you mix up the two.

Our idiot government did not fix Medicare. It spent the improvement money on a campaign email, then told you the email was the improvement.

Your Medicare Money, His Campaign-Friendly Email

Sources