U.S. President Joe Biden's Backdoor Medicare Part D Bailout 'Demonstrates' a Deep Disregard for Democracy
Urgent: Americans Are Boosting Their Social Security Check by MORE THAN $1,000 each month!... See How Here
Few likely noticed when the Biden administration announced a "voluntary Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration" late last month.
The initiative aims to "test" whether a new approach to reducing premiums for Medicare prescription drug plans will "increase the efficiency and economy of services" under the program — at least according to the administration.
Sounds innocuous.
But this demo is little more than an attempt to cover up one of the Democratic Party's worst policy blunders in recent memory — and give the party a multibillion-dollar boost in this November's election.
This "demonstration" wouldn't be necessary if the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — which Democrats rammed through Congress on a party-line vote and President Biden signed into law — hadn't sent Part D premiums into the stratosphere.
The Biden administration is effectively raiding the public purse to shield seniors from premium hikes precipitated by its own policies.
First, some background. Medicare Part D is the component of the entitlement that allows seniors to purchase subsidized drug coverage from a range of private insurers.
And it has proven to be one of the most successful public-sector health programs in history.
With respect to Medicare Part D's participants, 91% said they were satisfied with their drug plan in 2023; 86% said their premiums were affordable.
Buried in the Inflation Reduction Act are numerous changes to Part D's benefits structure, several of which will take effect next year.
And it's in response to these changes that insurers have threatened to raise premiums through the roof in 2025.
These premium hikes amount to a massive, unexpected tax increase on seniors — something no Democrat, from Kamala Harris on down, would welcome right now.
So, the Biden administration is deploying some bureaucratic sleights of hand to obscure those hikes.
It all started when the administration quietly delayed the release of Part D premium data for 2025.
That delay was almost certainly intended to hide the fact that premiums were expected to soar next year, at least judging by the initial bids provided by Part D plans.
Indeed, the national average monthly bid amount for Part D plans went from $64.28 in 2024 to $179.45 for next year — an increase of nearly 180%.
This is where the new "demonstration" comes in.
It provides an across-the-board cut of $15 on base Part D premiums, while capping year-over-year premium increases at $35.
Finally, it would put more of the risk now shouldered by Part D plans onto the government's ledger.
Important: See How to Increase Your Social Security Payments Up To $188,170... Read More Here
That's sure to please insurers but is a terrible deal for taxpayers.
By one estimate, the reform could cost more than $20 billion in its first year — with around half of that money going to insurance companies, not seniors.
Seen in this way, the Biden administration has just announced an astonishingly large transfer of taxpayer dollars to seniors and the insurance industry — right before asking voters to elevate Vice President Harris to the nation's top job.
And it's green-lit that spending without even bothering to consult Congress, the constitutional keeper of the power of the purse.
The Department of Health and Human Services does have the authority to carry out "experiments and demonstrations" to test new policy arrangements.
But this is no test, nor is it an experiment.
It's an immensely costly giveaway to the insurance industry aimed at solving a problem that the Democrats themselves created.
The demo also sets a dangerous precedent. Imagine if future administrations followed President Biden's lead and started using the executive branch's demonstration authority to advance their political goals — or simply as a crude, expensive, and sneaky alternative to actual legislative democracy?
After all, there was no floor debate about this $20 billion cash transfer, no independent cost estimate or barnstorming tour to sell the idea to the nation.
All voters got was a press release that seemed tailor-made to avoid notice.
Progressives have grown fond of portraying themselves as the sole defenders of truth and democracy in our political system. This latest maneuver "demonstrates" otherwise.
Sally C. Pipes is president, CEO, and the Thomas W. Smith fellow in healthcare policy at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is "False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All," (Encounter Books 2020). Follow her on Twitter @sallypipes. Read Sally Pipes' Reports — More Here.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.