The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it intended to end a Biden-era program that for the past two years has helped tamp down the cost of monthly premiums for drug coverage for people on Medicare.
The decision means that millions of Americans 65 and older could face higher Medicare drug premiums next year, when the cost of living is already a major concern. That could be politically damaging for Republicans in the midterm elections. In the weeks leading up to November, Medicare beneficiaries could experience sticker shock while shopping for next year’s drug plan.
For 2025 and 2026, the federal government gave health insurers billions of dollars in subsidies to help them keep down drug premiums for people on Medicare. Without the subsidies, millions of people could have had to pay hundreds of dollars more a year for their drug plans.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said in a post on social media on Tuesday that the subsidies had been ended because the insurers no longer needed them. He said every Medicare beneficiary would still have options for low-cost plans.
“Premiums will go up by less than $10 for most Medicare recipients, with many even seeing LOWER premiums,” Dr. Oz wrote.
He said that the Biden administration’s approach was “unacceptable” and that it “gave BILLIONS of taxpayer money DIRECTLY to Big Insurance Companies.”
But it is not clear yet how many people may have to pay more, and how much it will cost them. Prices vary widely across plans, and people will have the opportunity to shop for a new plan this fall. C.M.S. said it expected to make public the monthly premiums for individual plans in September.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the decision to end the subsidies.

About 25 million Americans have stand-alone plans for so-called Part D drug coverage under traditional Medicare. The premiums they pay are $36 a month on average, according to KFF, a nonprofit health research group. An additional 31 million beneficiaries get their drug coverage through Medicare Advantage, a private-sector alternative for people 65 and older.
Biden administration officials set up the subsidy program before the presidential election in 2024 to offset changes that would have sharply raised Medicare drug premiums for 2025.

Biden officials were reacting to the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022 by Democrats without any Republican votes, which introduced a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs along with other changes to Medicare.
At the time, Republicans sharply criticized the offset plan, calling it a nakedly political ploy meant to sway voters. They said it would offer older people only temporary relief.
For months, President Trump has been promoting his efforts to lower prices for weight-loss drugs and other medicines, saying that alone should be enough to win the midterms for Republicans.
Democrats pounced on the Trump administration’s announcement on Tuesday. Kendall Witmer, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement that Mr. Trump and Republicans “are doing everything they can to make health care unaffordable for Americans, especially for seniors.”
In another statement on Tuesday, Leslie Dach, the chair of Protect Our Care, a left-leaning health care advocacy organization, accused the Trump administration of “eliminating a key program that helps seniors afford their medications.”
AHIP, a major trade group for the insurers, said it was reviewing the announcement. “At a time of sharply rising prescription drug costs, health plans are focused on keeping Part D coverage and benefits as affordable as possible,” said Chris Bond, a spokesman, in a statement.

>>1526196
Why does Trump want his fellow old people to die?

>>1526226
We need to accelerate boomer extinction

>>1526226
Spite.

>>1526226
Because Republicans are the corporation party and corporations want to price gouging people until they're nearly dead.

In a decently run country this would all be nationalized and prices would drop dramatically because the shareholder parasites would be removed.

>>1526196
>Blah, blah.
>EVIL!!
>People will die!!!
I don't even need to read the comments to know what Demodorks will say.
This policy started in 2022 which saw a historic increase in Medicare Part B Premiums.
Biden did nothing. The price gouging of a 34% yearly price increase marched on.
The cost of drugs are bogus too. Most of the shit takes pennies to make these days.

>>1526309
Mong

>>1526309
>price gouging
stop being a tranny communist libtard and let these honest companies set their own prices without the government controlling them.
only communist libtards want the government to control prices

>esl shill thinks leeches are a necessary part of health care

>>1526342
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/05/15/2025-08876/delivering-most-favored-nation-prescription-drug-pricing-to-american-patients
Subsidies are a gift, not a price control you goddamned retard.
There can't be enough downies to keep getting Democrats elected.

>There can't be enough downies to keep getting Democrats elected.
Retards have been solidly red for decades

>>1526345
The obvious solution is to just nationalize everything so there's no reason have this insanely high prices.

1526342
>communist
'Mamdani is a very rational man' - Trump

>>1526380
The Soviet Union nationalized everything and lost the Cold War to the United States of America

>>1526411
Umm, the Soviet Union losing the cold war had nothing to do with everything being nationalized. It was mostly due to the out of control inflation.

>>1526353
The parties switched.

>>1526411
>Soviet Union
>Russians
They can't get capitalism right either.
I like how you have less faith in American than Russians.

>>1526413
In the 1970s and 1980s when Republican heavily courted white racists with Nixon's southern strategy and Reagan's State's right speech, effectively turning the Republicans into the pro slavery party.

They were already the corpo party even after the civil war, so that's always been consistent.

>>1526415
to be fair, the northerners were the corporate party in the 1800s since they had all the infrastructure. the southerners were the "enslave poor people" party

>>1526415
Debunked top down narrative.
Democrats are retarded. It's devolved into a religious cult.

>>1526418
Post a link to this hypothetical debunking so I can laugh.

>>1526415
https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-debunking-the-southern-switch
Ben Shapiro debunks the southern strategy

>>1526418
Projection.

Donald Trump, please stop trying to fuck my grandma and go back to fucking your friends' kids.
thanks

>>1526380
>The obvious solution is to just nationalize
Shut the fuck up. Just shut the fuck up. Nobody will ever agree to your bullshit commie talking point. Fuck off.

>>1526434
>>1526419
It's true. The tactics remain the same even in modernity.
Packing states with illegal immigrants is the 3/5th compromise, but they're counted as whole people.
They're still racist though the target of the racism has change to whites. They think that while males deserve no rights, fitting with denial of women's suffrage (Thanks Harding).
>>1526446
Nationalize that anon's mother.
Also, North Korea exists for commie fagwits. Prison is an option too. I

>>1526412
Anon im left leaning on like 90% of issues and even im not stupid enough to ignore that while Americans were buying sports cars and going to Disney World, people living under the Soviet Union were rationing food and living in cramped brutalist concrete slab apartments.

>>1526453
>Anon im left leaning on like 90% of issues
Fag.