The Biden-Harris administration is facing some heat for allegedly using taxpayer funds to hide Medicare premium hikes ahead of the November election.
The move is one that goes against a pledge made on the campaign trail by Vice President Kamala Harris. Earlier this month, Harris told AARP that she "will always fight to protect & strengthen Medicare for this and future generations." Advocacy group Commitment to Seniors said it "didn't take long for VP Harris to violate" her pledge.
Multiple other critics now say Harris is backtracking on promises she made to safeguard the Medicare trust fund. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) unveiled a three-year "demonstration project" to to try and help lower monthly premium hikes. According to the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis, that demonstration project could cost taxpayers over $21 billion in the next three years.
Joel White, Republican strategist, CEO of Horizon Government Affairs and president of the Council for Affordable Health Care Coverage, said this all stems from the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act which was passed exclusively by Democrats and in which Vice President Harris was the tiebreaking vote.
"It radically rewrote Medicare's drug benefit and made it much more expensive," White about the Inflation Reduction Act.
This year, premiums went up 21% and are set to go up another 23% in 2025.
"Seniors are paying much more for their prescription drugs when the Biden-Harris administration said that they were going to lower drug costs," White added.
With drug prices and premiums rising, defenders of the administration claim the project would provide quick and necessary relief. White said the demo was just a ploy for the Democrats to get votes from seniors shopping for plans.
"That took $7 billion out of Medicare and gave it to the insurers in the hopes that premiums wouldn't go up," said White. "They tried to buy votes right before the election but what ended up happening was they took a lot more money from taxpayers and then spent it elsewhere."