President Donald Trump is sending more than 20 million Medicare recipients a one-time $90 payment — less than half the cost of a single month’s standard Medicare Part B premium — just weeks before the midterm elections.
Trump announced the payments late Friday on Truth Social, describing them as “Checks” of nearly $100 for “wonderful Seniors.”
The White House clarified that eligible recipients will receive $90, mostly through direct deposit beginning in early October. The standard Medicare Part B premium is $202.90 per month in 2026.
The payments will come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, established by Congress in 2008 to fund improvements to Medicare’s fee-for-service program. The White House said approximately $2 billion is available in the fund and that it has never previously been used to make direct payments to Medicare recipients.
Trump called the fund a “pointless ‘Slush Fund’” that Democrats had used for “Waste, Fraud, and Abuse for their Special Interest friends.”
Most Medicare Part B recipients will qualify, although people whose premiums are paid by Medicaid and higher-income recipients who pay an income-related adjustment will not, according to the White House.
The payments are the latest in a series of cash promises from Trump as Republicans approach the Nov. 3 midterms. His administration has also announced $500 refunds for nearly 1 million Affordable Care Act enrollees who it says were overcharged under the Biden administration.
Trump used the same Truth Social post announcing the $90 Medicare payments to renew another, substantially larger promise.
Americans, he said, “can also rest assured” that a $5,000 “Trump Dividend” would be distributed to every U.S. citizen “if, and when, the Republicans win the Midterm Elections!”
The administration has not detailed how such a $5,000 payment would be funded or enacted.
