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(Shirleen Guerra, The Center Square)—The Congressional Budget Office has released an analysis of the Biden administration’s newly announced Medicare prescription drug premiums, estimating the new program could cost taxpayers more than $21 billion over three years if implemented.
The analysis comes after House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to Director Phillip Swagel of the CBO questioning the budgetary impact of this new demonstration program.
A release from Swagel’s department said the increase in federal spending would range from $10 billion to $20 billion in 2025 compared to earlier projections.
“As predicted, the Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act not only quelled investment for new cures, but caused Medicare prescription drug plan premiums to skyrocket, and Democrats are scrambling to cover it up before the election,” Arrington said in a press release. “In July, the Biden-Harris CMS scrambled to create a new federal program that will send billions of tax dollars to large health insurance companies to cover up a massive flaw in their so-called Inflation Reduction Act.”
The new average plan bid for a standard Part D coverage increases by 179% for 2025 partly due to an underestimation of federal attributions to the Part D changes, according to the analysis.
Arrington continued, “Today, CBO confirmed that the administration’s election year Hail Mary will cost taxpayers an astounding $7 billion next year alone, and $21 billion over the planned three-year demo, adding to the more than $2 trillion in Biden-Harris executive spending.”
These plans typically expect monthly reinsurance, which means Medicare payments cover part of the costs of prescription drugs when the catastrophic threshold is reached.
Almost 60% of Part D enrollees are through Medicare Advantage plans and receive coverage through MA-PD plans. The rest are covered through what’s known as stand-alone prescription drug plans.
CBO expects the following changes for prescription drug plans in 2025:
- A $15 reduction for monthly PDPs. This would cost a total of $2.9 billion in federal funding.
- Increases in PDPs will be capped at $35 in 2024 and 2025, totaling $1.8 billion in federal funding.
- Risk corridor subsidies will increase for PDPs that have more than 2.5% of bids in 2025, resulting in $250 million of federal funding.
The budget office said the changes to temporary subsidies, combined with risk corridors, will increase federal spending by $5 billion in 2025, with $2 billion in net spending interest until 2034.
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Policies included in the $891 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 have changed the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit that was originally estimated to be $30 million over 10 years beginning in 2025.
This resulted in the sponsors of the Medicare prescription drug plan increasing plan bids and base beneficiary premiums for 2025 while reducing the number of plans that would be available to seniors in 2025.
“When Democrats unilaterally enacted major changes to Medicare two years ago, they set seniors up for new expenses and fewer options,” Grassley said in a release. “This nonpartisan CBO analysis confirms CMS’s cost-shifting plan is a dishonest election year gimmick to cover up those consequences.”
CMS is an acronym for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The program would send federal money to large health insurance companies while falsely lowering the cost for seniors Part D premiums and potentially costing $7 billion in 2025, according to the analysis.
Grassley continued, “Rather than coming to the table and legitimately addressing its partisan mistakes, the Biden-Harris administration threw taxpayer dollars at the problems it created, putting Americans on the hook for tens of billions more dollars.”
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a release, “Today’s final guidance for the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program builds off the success of the first 10 negotiated drug prices and continues the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to provide millions of people with Medicare affordable access to innovative therapies.”
This is a contradiction from the reported number taxpayers will pay that was stated in the analysis.
Brooks-LaSure continued, “While saving Medicare and taxpayers billions of dollars, the negotiated prices will also provide people with Medicare a better deal on some of Medicare’s costliest prescription drugs, promoting necessary competition in the market, and ensuring Medicare is strong today and into the future.”
The temporary subsidies, announced in July, affect both those enrolled and the federal payments to Plan D premiums in 2025, 2026 and 2027, though certain policies have yet to be announced for 2026-27, meaning no budgetary estimation for both years.
The budget office said it expects $100 million in 2025 from each organization that controls and collects payments from the government on behalf of Part D plans.
Continuing that most of that would have been paid for by enrollees in the Part D program through premiums, “For that reason, the effect of CMS’s subsidies on plans’ revenues is much smaller than the federal cost. By providing larger federal subsidies to prescription drug plans, the federal payments to Part D plans effectively cover costs that would have been borne by Part D enrollees.”
Ten Election Irregularities That Have Occurred During Early Voting So Far
by Just The News
A variety of election irregularities – at least ten of them – have occurred across the country in the weeks leading up to Election Day, as some states have reported record-breaking turnout during early voting. The issues range from burning ballot boxes to fake voter registrations, with the close presidential…
Will Gold and Silver Prices Drop if Donald Trump Wins?
by Sponsored Post
It’s well-established among economists that if Kamala Harris wins the presidential election, gold and silver will likely shoot up in value. But what if Donald Trump wins? With his chances of victory increasing, should gold and silver owners sell now because values will drop during his second term? “Considering everything…
Election Skullduggery From Around the Nation
by PJ Media
To the surprise of no one with an ounce of grey matter, the 2024 election irregularities have begun, and, as expected, Democrats are responsible for almost of the malfeasance. Roughly 57 million Americans have already voted as of this writing, and I’ve found a K2-sized pile of evidence showing the…
P. Diddy ‘Kept Meticulous Records’ of His Parties and ‘Has Enough Dirt to Hang Expose of Hollywood’
by End Times Headlines
Sean “P. Diddy” Combs has had zero support from exes, including Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz, who are in a major panic that he’ll drag them down by spilling sordid secrets about them if he winds up wearing a number, a source exclusively tells In Touch. “It’s not like they’ve…
What if Harris Gets Away With It?
by The Blaze
On Nov. 5, the American experiment in republican government may well come to an end. Over the past two decades, we have been living through a slow-motion communist revolution. Acts of political warfare have become commonplace. The most devastating has been the corruption of our election system. Having vilified Donald…
Here Are 8 Major Election Developments That Everyone Needs to Know About
by Michael Snyder
(The Economic Collapse Blog)—Can you believe that we are less than a week away from Election Day? Over 57 million Americans have already voted, and in some states more than half of the total expected vote is already in. So it may already be too late for a last minute…
Democrats Plan for Color Revolution
by Zero Hedge
It feels like there’s been a notable shift amongst Democrats in the last month. A recent sense of fatalism – or perhaps just simple resignation to what appears to be an inevitable Trump win. But as it turns out, there are some Democrats who have been preparing for this potential…
This Election Will Not Prevent the Coming Chaos
by Mike Pottage
(WND)—It seems the justice system is overwhelmed by criminal cases involving illegals, and this puts Americans at risk of being short changed by that system. What is even more astounding is the fact this crisis was created by the Democrat Party and was 50 years in the making, and yet…
House Republicans Warn White House It Could Have Violated Federal Law by Editing Biden’s Transcript
by Just The News
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer accused the White House on Wednesday of publishing a “false transcript” of President Joe Biden’s controversial remarks on Tuesday, and warned doing so could have violated federal law. The president appeared to say that supporters of former…
As Christians Go To The Polls, We Must Remember: The Future Of Our Nation Is At Stake
by Harbingers Daily
In just a few days, our nation will hold one of the most consequential elections in decades. Voters will go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 5, to cast their ballots for the next president of the United States, as well as for many crucial congressional, state and local offices….
‘Fertility Call Checks’ — Chinese Communists Cold-Call Women Demanding Details About Their Periods
by Breitbart
Chinese women are flooding regime-controlled social media with complaints that local Communist Party officials are making phone calls to harass them into having more children, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday. The callers, government “grassroots” officials, sometimes demand details of their private lives including the timing of their…
Absolutely Massive Food Bank Demand in the Swing States of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin
by Michael Snyder
(The Economic Collapse Blog)—The economy is the number one political issue in America right now, and it isn’t because the economy is doing well. The long-term economic collapse that I have been writing about for years is playing out right in front of our eyes, and it is going to have…