In American history, there have been many examples of one president leaving a parting gift for his incoming successor. Typically, these take the form of handwritten notes often not privy to the public, but other times a president will take a more… creative approach. For example, President Bill Clinton’s White House famously pranked their successors by removing all the “W” keys from White House computers ahead of President George W. Bush’s arrival in the Oval Office. President Barack Obama left a slew of policies in his wake as President Donald Trump took office for the first time.
However, it appears that President Joe Biden is taking a dangerous page from his former boss’s book with his “parting gift” to President Trump — he proposed underfunding the Medicare Advantage (MA) program one more time ahead of President Trump’s second administration, putting the healthcare of millions of seniors in jeopardy.
President Biden’s Medicare Massacre saw back-to-back cuts to the MA program going into 2025, with 1.3 million Americans having already lost their healthcare plan due to the cuts. Last year, MA program seniors in nineteen states saw their healthcare premiums skyrocket by more than 10 percent; and those same seniors, already struggling with inflation, are facing a median of $400 or more in out-of-pocket payments in 2025. These cuts would put millions of seniors in danger of not having access to healthcare and would not address the true infection hitting their wallets – inflation. In fact, the cuts risk making the inflation problem worse.
The Biden administration’s economic policies kneecapped the economy and sailed our nation into tumultuous fiscal waters, and we are seeing these policies heavily impact the medical sphere. Sadly, these poor economic policies continued until the last minute of the Biden administration, and the effects will be felt throughout the country. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) projects an eight percent year-on-year medical cost trend in 2025, meaning the MA program will have to pay more to take care of our seniors. These costs are then passed onto the seniors they serve through higher premiums and costs, resulting in higher out-of-pocket costs for MA program enrollees. Additionally, President Biden’s proposed cuts to the MA program are lower than the current inflation rate of 2.7 percent, meaning the cost increase facing our seniors will not keep up with the inflation wrought by other Biden administration policies.
The result of President Biden’s scheme is basically another MA program cut that will result in higher costs and worse care for the 34 million seniors across America. This means that prescriptions, doctor and hospital visits, live-in care, and more will break the banks of some of our most vulnerable citizens, including many of our parents and grandparents. But it’s not just the seniors who are impacted by President Biden’s plan; low-income communities will be adversely impacted by the Biden administration’s proposed cuts.
If that doesn’t make sense to you, let me let you in on the game plan – this is all political. President Biden is not trying to cement a part of his legacy (but, ironically, this action has become a glaring part of his legacy through his MA program cuts), but is rather laying a trap to ensure the Democrats win big in the next midterm elections.
Biden’s trap is activated when the proposed cuts go into effect in 2026 — in the middle of this administration and just prior to the midterm elections. Midterm elections are a crucial time for any administration, as they act as a referendum on the first half of a president’s term in office. President Biden has manufactured a ticking political timebomb that he set to go off during an election year which would put tens of millions of seniors at risk of losing their healthcare coverage.
Make no mistake – this is by design, and it must be countered effectively. Lawmakers must see this play for what it is – another departing gambit. Congress needs to dismantle President Biden’s time bomb before it goes off and, if they do, they will have saved the Medicare Advantage program and the tens of millions of seniors who depend on it for their healthcare from this impending financial calamity.