I was one of those older adults, covered by Medicare, who received a check for $90 from the president, along with a letter explaining how that money would “offset some of the cost of your October Medicare premium.” He added, “Since returning to office, I have fought to lower Healthcare Costs, increase Accountability, and Put Patients First.” He went on, but this is all you need to know to realize you are being hoodwinked. Unfortunately, many people are not that well informed. What I learned from an article in The Washington Post on Oct. 8 was that only those with Medicare Part B received those checks. No one with Medicare Advantage or with disabilities and no low-income older adults on Medicaid received a penny. Further, the money, amounting to $2 billion, was pulled by Donald Trump from a Medicare Improvement Fund, set up by Congress for long-term program improvements and to help lower-income beneficiaries navigate care. Trump’s use of these funds was not authorized by Congress.
Trump refused to renew the subsidies to Obamacare (Affordable Care Act), which made health insurance affordable to many and added punitive work requirements that made it more difficult for many families to get Medicaid coverage. In addition, Department of Government Efficiency cuts reduced the number of hospitals in rural areas. Funding was cut for Planned Parenthood, which supplies medical services for women and men. The “Big Beautiful Bill” cut off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for families in need of supplemental food, including free school lunches for kids living at the poverty level. (According to Paul Krugman, this is especially destructive because it compromises kids’ health and earnings potential for their entire lifetimes.) According to one estimate, over 12 million Americans have lost health insurance under Trump 2.0 (see Paul Krugman’s Substack letter of Wednesday, Oct. 21).
Don’t be fooled by the check or the letter. The check is just another bribe, no more significant than saying that paying for one full tank of gas reduces the price of gas; the letter is a piece of propaganda made all the more disgusting by the next-to-last sentence: “I will never stop fighting to put the American People FIRST, restore Affordability, protect your hard-earned money, and lower the Cost of Healthcare.”
Julia Sperry
Hockessin
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
