Trump Says 20.8 Million Medicare Beneficiaries Qualify for $90 Rebates

President Donald Trump says his administration will send one-time $90 payments to millions of Medicare beneficiaries to help offset their Part B premiums. The payments are expected before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Saturday that 20.8 million people are eligible. In a Friday Truth Social post, Trump said his administration would “immediately” begin sending checks of nearly $100 to more than 20 million seniors. He said the money would come from the Medicare Improvement Fund.

“The Administration is making a $90 Premium Rebate available for Part B premiums to certain Medicare beneficiaries because the best way to improve Medicare is to put healthcare dollars back where they belong — in the hands of our Medicare beneficiaries — and make coverage more affordable,” CMS said in a fact sheet.

CMS said some beneficiaries would receive a $90 direct deposit in early October, followed by an email or letter from Trump. Others would receive a Treasury Department paper check later that month. The White House gave a different timetable for mailed payments: It said checks for people without direct deposit would be sent in early October to the addresses they have registered with Medicare, according to The Guardian. Both timetables put the payments before the election.

Trump said Congress had given the Medicare Improvement Fund $2 billion to improve the Medicare fee-for-service program, The Guardian reported. CMS said Congress established the fund in 2008 to help finance general improvements to the Medicare program. Its fact sheet called Trump the first president to tap the fund, while also noting that Congress has withdrawn money from it on numerous occasions to offset new spending. Trump called it a “pointless ‘Slush Fund’” in his post.

The Medicare rebates are separate from $500 payments the administration says it is sending to about 1 million people who bought insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Trump said Thursday that those checks had been sent. The administration describes them as refunds for excessive fees; NBC News reported that the White House has offered no evidence for its claim that the Biden administration overcharged the recipients. Trump said last month the payments would reach people in 30 states.

The rebates also differ from ACA subsidies for people under 65 that the Republican-controlled Congress allowed to expire last year, NBC News reported.

In September, Trump proposed sending $5,000 to every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in November, according to The Guardian. Lawmakers in both parties have expressed skepticism, NBC News reported, and Trump has not detailed the policy needed to deliver the money. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC News last month that the funds would not come from taxpayer dollars.

Trump also promised a 20% return to Americans from DOGE savings in February 2025 and, later that year, a dividend of at least $2,000 per person from tariff revenue. Neither payment was made, according to NBC News.