The Trump administration can keep its promise to protect Medicare Advantage by releasing a strong final rate, ensuring the cost of seniors’ healthcare won’t increase.
During his campaign, Donald Trump promised to protect Medicare. After Joe Biden’s Medicare Advantage, President Trump had his work cut out for him.
For two years, the Biden administration authorized steep cuts to Medicare Advantage, the most popular Medicare choice today, which serves more than 34 million. Meanwhile, medical costs and use rates were rising, putting more pressure on the program. The result has been predictably disastrous: 2 million seniors have been forced to find new Medicare Advantage plans for this year thanks to widespread plan closures. Millions more have faced higher costs and reduced benefits.
The good news is that Trump can fix Medicare Advantage and can start immediately.
On its way out the door, the Biden administration released a draft of the annual payment rate for Medicare Advantage, known as the Advance Notice. It proposed only a modest bump, not even close to enough to reverse the damage of the past few years.
