Trump Administration Sends $90 Medicare Payments to About 20 Million Seniors
The Trump administration issued about 20 million $90 direct deposits on Oct. 8, plus 875,000 paper checks, to Medicare Part B enrollees, a White House official told USA Today, weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms.
About 20 million Medicare recipients received a $90 direct deposit on Thursday, with another 875,000 payments sent by paper check, a White House official confirmed to USA Today. The one-time payments, announced by President Donald Trump last week, are intended to offset part of recipients’ October Medicare premiums.
The money comes from the $2 billion Medicare Improvement Fund, which Congress created in 2008 to improve Medicare services, according to USA Today. Recipients also received an email from the president saying the funds should go directly to Americans for their individual health care needs.
Who qualifies, and who does not
The payments go only to seniors enrolled in Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient care and doctor visits, USA Today reported. That is less than a third of the nation’s roughly 70 million Medicare enrollees. People whose premiums are already paid by Medicaid, and those who pay an income-related monthly adjustment amount, do not qualify, the White House said, according to USA Today.
California has the most recipients at more than 1.52 million, followed by Texas, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania, USA Today reported. Among closely contested Senate states, the administration listed hundreds of thousands of recipients each in Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Iowa and Ohio.
Payments arrive weeks before the midterms
The deposits land less than a month before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, when Republicans are trying to hold their congressional majorities amid voter anxiety over living costs, according to USA Today. The administration last week also began sending $500 checks to nearly 1 million people in 30 states who, it says, were overcharged fees through the federal Affordable Care Act exchange, and Trump has promised $5,000 dividend checks to all American adults if Republicans retain control of Congress, USA Today reported.
Democratic critics called the senior payments an election stunt. Sen. Roy Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, dismissed them in remarks reported by USA Today. In his email to recipients, Trump also pointed to administration efforts on prescription drug pricing and to rural health care funding in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to USA Today.
Reporting based on coverage by USA Today.
