President Donald Trump promised Friday to provide $90 rebate checks to offset premiums paid to millions of older Americans on Medicare, his latest promise to send money to Americans before the midterm elections.
“I am pleased to announce that my administration will immediately begin sending ‘checks’ of nearly $100 to more than 20 MILLION wonderful seniors to help pay their Medicare Part B premiums, which we have already reduced by significant amounts,” the president wrote in a Truth Social article.
Trump said the money “will come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, a useless ‘slush fund’ that has only been used by Democrats in Congress to pay for the waste, fraud and abuse of their special interest friends, and to drive up health care costs.”
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirmed Trump’s plans Saturday, writing in a fact sheet that 20.8 million Americans are eligible for the $90 premium cuts.
“The Administration is offering a $90 premium reduction for Part B premiums to certain Medicare beneficiaries because the best way to improve Medicare is to put health care dollars back where they belong – in the hands of our Medicare beneficiaries – and to make coverage more affordable,” the CMS fact sheet states.
The agency said some recipients will receive a direct deposit for a $90 rebate in early October, followed by an email or letter from Trump, while other recipients will receive a $90 paper check from the Treasury Department later this month.
After this deadline, both payment methods should be received before the November 3 midterm elections.
The CMS fact sheet claims that Trump is the first president to tap the Medicare Improvement Fund, created by Congress in 2008 to help finance general improvements to the Medicare program.
However, the fact sheet also points out that Congress has withdrawn from the fund numerous times to “offset” new spending. »
Trump wrote in his Truth Social article that the $90 checks are “distinct from the equally substantial reimbursement ‘checks’ we are sending to a million Americans who were overcharged by Joe Biden for their plans under the Unaffordable Care Act.”
Last month, Trump announced he would send $500 rebate checks to about 1 million ACA beneficiaries in 30 states. The White House claimed, without evidence, that beneficiaries were overcharged by the Biden administration for exchange fees. The president said Thursday that those checks had been sent to the recipients.
These one-time premium reductions are also different from the ACA subsidies, which affected people under 65, and which the Republican-controlled Congress allowed to expire last year.
This week’s health care-focused checks add to the list of payments Trump has promised to deliver to Americans.
In his Friday message, Trump also promised again to pay a $5,000 dividend to all adult U.S. citizens if Republicans win the House and Senate in November.
Lawmakers on both sides have expressed skepticism about these “Trump dividend” checks, especially since the president has neglected to provide details on the policy that would be needed to support the promise and put it in Americans’ wallets. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC News last month that the funds would not come from taxpayer dollars.
In February 2025, Trump also promised a 20% return to US citizens on DOGE savings. Later that year, it said it would pay a “dividend of at least $2,000 per person” from revenue generated by its pricing policy. None of these payments were made to American citizens.
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