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The promised $ 200 prescription drug cards for Medicare beneficiaries won’t come.
There is little time before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, and the Trump administration is withdrawing its plan to send the discount cards to some 39 million Medicare subscribers, an official with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services who confirmed to CNBC. Agency head Seema Verma previously told Business Insider that she did not expect the cards to be sent.
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President Trump first pushed his plan during a campaign speech in Charlotte, North Carolina in late September. The cards have been criticized for their cost ($ 7.9 billion) and their questionable legality.
The White House had announced that it would pay for the cards as part of a Medicare program designed to test innovations in general to lower prices or improve health care.
In this case, the aim was to measure whether the extra money would improve a person’s ability to take medication as prescribed because they could more afford it. Medicare does not have a limit on the cost of prescription drugs under Part D.
However, lower-income beneficiaries are already receiving additional assistance and appear to be excluded from this proposal.
