Vice President Kamala Harris is facing backlash for vowing to secure the Medicare trust fund, as critics point out her administration’s move to tap into it to offset premium hikes.
Both Harris and former President Donald Trump participated in a survey by the leading advocacy group for Americans over 50 years old – the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) – covering social security and health care issues.
“I will always fight to protect and strengthen Medicare for this and future generations,” Harris told AARP last week.
“That includes securing the Medicare trust fund and making sure that big corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, which, by the way, they can afford to pay,” she said.
In a move critics say is designed to shield the Biden-Harris administration from election fallout, the administration was discovered this year to have leveraged taxpayer funds to mask upcoming increases in Medicare premiums.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, which was intended to cap out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, insurers are poised to significantly hike monthly premiums, with average bids for Part D plans expected to triple by 2025.
In response to potential voter backlash, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rolled out a three-year “demonstration project” to subsidize these premiums, aiming to keep them artificially low.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a fiscal analysis of the Biden-Harris administration’s Medicare Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration Program this week, estimating it could cost taxpayers over $21 billion over three years.
“Didn’t take long for VP Harris to violate ‘securing #Medicare trust fund’ pledge to @AARP,” advocacy group Commitment to Seniors wrote on X.
Co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, Stephen Moore, called it, “More highway robbery from the Dems on Medicare trust fund.”
“Seniors beware,” he added.
More highway robbery from the Dems on Medicare trust fund. Seniors beware. https://t.co/VwCq26UIkt
— Stephen Moore (@StephenMoore) October 7, 2024
Some Republicans say the program, launched by the CMS, aims to artificially lower premiums for seniors, which have surged amid rising costs attributed to Democratic policies.
“When Democrats unilaterally enacted major changes to Medicare two years ago, they set seniors up for new expenses and fewer options. This nonpartisan CBO analysis confirms CMS’s cost-shifting plan is a dishonest election year gimmick to cover up those consequences,” ranking member of the budget committee Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement.
“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,” he said.
FOX Business did not hear back from the Harris campaign by publication deadline.