Concerned about skyrocketing Medicare Part D premiums, the Biden-Harris administration is spending billions of dollars to bail out health insurers and appease seniors 100 days before the presidential election.
Paragon Health Research Institute release The report noted that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has added a three-year “premium stabilization” demonstration to stand-alone prescription drug plans under Medicare Part D. The institute’s Jackson Hammond argued that the move is a major relief measure after the Biden-Harris Administration’s Stop Inflation Act capped out-of-pocket costs for the Part D program.
Essentially, IRAs place a $2,000 annual cap on contributions to the Part D program and “significantly” increase the insurer’s financial liability.
What will insurers do when the cost of their plans rise? They raise premiums, of course. We don’t yet know how much Part D premiums will be, but we do know they will jump, as the average bid submitted by stand-alone PDP plans has soared from $64.28 in 2024 to $179.45 in 2025. And about 25 percent of the increase will be paid by beneficiaries and 75 percent by taxpayers.
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This could have been avoided by increasing the maximum out-of-pocket expenses. The Original Bipartisan Part D Redesign The cost cap was $3,100, limiting both premium increases and the burden on taxpayers. Former CBO Director Doug Holtz-Eakin said: Estimated value Fewer than 3 percent of Medicare beneficiaries have out-of-pocket costs of more than $2,000, so under partisan IRAs, Part D premiums have increased substantially.
“CMS has not yet released a cost estimate, but a rough calculation puts the cost at well over $10 billion over three years. demonstration,” Hammond wrote.
of The Wall Street Journal Editorial Committee Written this week:
This was a backdoor way for Democrats to shift the political blame onto insurance companies while limiting access to expensive drugs.
The ploy has backfired, and insurers are raising premiums. CMS’s intervention is another example of how IRAs will end up costing much more than Democrats claim. How much more is anyone’s guess, because CMS hasn’t done the usual rulemaking that requires a cost analysis.
Joe Grogan, who served as domestic policy adviser to President Trump, Written A RealClearPolicy Op-Ed on the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to salvage failed health care policy just before a crucial election season:
Announcing big increases to premiums for seniors in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention would undermine the party’s momentum. The premium stabilization demo would have to recalculate its bids, meaning the premium announcement would be delayed until mid-September, when premiums would be more reasonable with the demo’s taxpayer subsidy. As a political bonus, the delay in the premium announcement gives the administration a week and a half to tout the “savings” from the drug pricing component of the IRA, which is scheduled to be announced on September 1.st.
Grogan added, “After the election, policymakers will be faced with an untenable choice: Once the protests are over, Part D can become so expensive that not enough seniors can afford it and the program can die. Or they can ask taxpayers to endure more spending, which will undermine the success of Part D.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter. Sean Moran 3.
