The Biden-Harris administration is using your hard-earned taxpayer money to hide big increases in Medicare premiums caused by the horribly-named Inflation Reduction Act.
Because the Joe and Kamala’s IRA caps out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, insurers must raise the monthly premiums on Medicare, with some tripling by next year.
This would obviously upset a great many people, so the administration is subsidizing these premium increases with taxpayer monty to keep them artificially low, hoping you won’t notice.
Here’s more from Fox News:
In a move critics say is designed to shield the Biden-Harris administration from election fallout, the administration has leveraged taxpayer funds to mask upcoming increases in Medicare premiums.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was intended to cap out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, insurers are poised to significantly hike monthly premiums, with average bids for Part D plans expected to triple by 2025.
In response to potential voter backlash, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rolled out a three-year “demonstration project” to subsidize these premiums, aiming to keep them artificially low. However, despite the appearance of relief, some critics are saying that taxpayers will fund a dramatic increase in subsidies — from $30 per recipient per month in 2024 to $142.70 in 2025 — raising concerns about the long-term impact on government spending and debt.
Former President Trump adviser Joe Grogan has criticized the maneuver, arguing that it merely shifts costs rather than providing real relief.
“They’ve destroyed Part D premiums,” Grogan told Fox News Digital in an interview. “I’m not sure it’ll survive legal scrutiny if someone were to sue. Objectively, it shouldn’t be done. It’s just interjecting $5-$10 billion of taxpayer dollars, while the taxpayers are paying the price 85 days before an election. It’s sickening.”
“This is only going to get worse in 2025, 2026,” Grogan continued. “The program is in a death spiral. They announced a three-year demo. It’s already broken. The demo is going to fail. Premiums are still going to go up.”
Paragon Health Institute, a health care research group, called the CMS demo plan a “fake, costly demonstration,” in a recent analysis.
“Fearing the premium increases that the IRA redesign will impose on Part D plans, CMS has now launched a new voluntary, nationwide demonstration program that is neither a demonstration nor voluntary. Unlike this massive subsidization scheme, demonstrations are supposed to be limited in nature and test alternative features of program design,” the institute wrote. “As a result of the IRA changes, insurers that don’t participate are expected to either be uncompetitive from a price perspective or face significant losses — hardly a choice for insurers.”
Matt Whitlock cause this a huge scandal and he’s not wrong:
Will she be asked about it? Unlikely, unless Trump and Vance keep bringing it up, forcing the media to pay attention.