Trump Can Protect Seniors’ Health Care And Secure Their Future 

In the waning days of the Biden presidency, the administration proposed yet another blow to the Medicare Advantage (MA) program — a disappointing (though ultimately, unsurprising) reversal given Joe Biden’s raft of half-baked and unsustainable promiseson Medicare “reform.” Funding for this market-based program already fails to address ever-rising inflation, and this latest proposal will put even greater pressure on seniors who are already struggling to afford medical coverage. The Biden administration has left American seniors in the lurch; now, President Donald Trump must act to put this crucial program back on solid footing.  

More than half of seniors eligible for Medicare are enrolled in MA plans. These plans are an alternative to traditional Medicare that typically offer additional benefits like coverage of dental, hearing, and vision services – often for no additional premium. And, because these plans are grounded in competition and have improper payment rates below the traditional Medicare program, MA is an important and market-based improvement over the status-quo for taxpayers and consumers.  

Nearly 33 million Americans are enrolled in a MA plan, and beneficiaries cite the simplicity and convenience of plans as reasons for continued and expanding enrollment. In other words, erratic executive actions that threaten MA will make life and health care access more difficult for a large and vulnerable part of our citizenry.  

Beneficiaries may see headlines about MA reimbursement rates increasing by about 2%, but they should not be fooled by this misinformation; it is pure political gamesmanship. The government’s proposed rate “increases” are lower than the current inflation rate, making them a cut in real dollars. This adds insult to injury, given that inflation has skyrocketed under Biden and remains remarkably stubborn. Inflation has hit the medical sector particularly hard. This year, medical cost growth is anticipated to reach its highest level in 13 years.  

PricewaterhouseCoopers is “projecting an 8% year-on-year medical cost trend in 2025 for the Group market and 7.5% for the Individual market. This near-record trend is driven by inflationary pressure, prescription drug spending and behavioral health utilization.” 

Without adequate funding, MA providers will have to pass these increased costs onto ratepayers, resulting in higher out-of-pocket costs for seniors. This is all-but-certain to result in the MA program being swallowed by traditional Medicare, with competition going by the wayside and taxpayers footing the bill for more improper payments.  

This is not an isolated incident. MA faced years of neglect and confused reform priorities under the Biden administration, and the chickens are already coming home to roost. Seniors in 19 states have seen their premiums balloon by more than 10%, and some have even lost coverage altogether. If below-inflation rate adjustments are allowed to go into effect, these statistics will only get worse for these seniors.  

Despite these perverse consequences, the Biden administration continued to propose subpar rate adjustments year after year. As is so often the case in Washington D.C., this absurdity is rooted in political posturing. Biden’s last MA changes proposed on his way out of office won’t take effect until 2026 – right in the middle of the second Trump presidency and right as Republicans are fighting to maintain their congressional majorities.  

Progressive policymakers despise MA for the very same reason millions of older Americans love it: It brings a healthy dose of market competition and ingenuity to what is otherwise a costly and poorly designed Medicare program. While eliminating MA outright isn’t a feasible option, the program is doomed to die a slow death by a million rate adjustments – unless reforms reverse the status-quo.  

Less than a year ago, then-candidate Trump said “I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare.” Biden has left Trump with a critical opportunity to live up to this promise.  

American seniors cannot become collateral damage in this act of political sabotage by one presidential administration against another. MA has bolstered the lives of millions of Americans and has been a welcome market-based improvement on a bank-breaking federal program.  President Trump and lawmakers must quickly work together to save the Medicare Advantage program.

David Williams is president of Taxpayers Protection Alliance. 

This was originally published as an op-ed in Issues & Insights.