White House spending money to suppress Medicare premiums ahead of election

By 
 August 16, 2024

Democrats have been projecting an air of confidence ever since Vice President Kamala Harris became their party's presumptive nominee.

Yet according to Daily Caller columnist Mary Rook, Harris faces a brewing scandal that could end her campaign. 

White House struggling to control Medicare premiums

Rook noted in an article published on Wednesday that the vice president has boasted of her role in helping to pass the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) two years ago.

Yet while the law included a provision which capped out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, it will also cause those same beneficiaries to see a spike in monthly premiums.

In response, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) revealed late last month that it has started subsidizing Medicare premiums with tax dollars as part of a "demonstration project."

According to Fox News, the move is calculated to "potential voter backlash" and involves increasing per recipient monthly subsidies from $30 per month to $142.70.

Trump adviser: "The program is in a death spiral"

Joe Grogan serves as an advisor to former President Donald Trump, and he told Fox News that the Biden administration has "destroyed part D premiums."

"I'm not sure it'll survive legal scrutiny if someone were to sue. Objectively, it shouldn't be done," Grogan went on to insist.

"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," he complained.

"This is only going to get worse in 2025, 2026," Grogan predicted, adding, "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."

Democrats "just want to get through the election"

He further alleged that Democrats "just want to get through the election" and are "hoping after the election they can face it, but it's gonna need to be dealt with in the next 12–18 months.

Rook offered a similar perspective, asserting that "Harris hopes the millions of American Medicare beneficiaries won't see or understand that the taxpayer subsidies keeping their costs low are only temporary."

"She wants to keep the bleeding at a minimum to keep her campaign afloat, but the move doesn't fix the massive problems in our social benefits system," the columnist wrote.

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