Donald Trump Is Buying Votes at $500 a Pop
The Bulwark · C · trust 10/100
He’s calling it an Obamacare “refund,” but it’s nothing of the sort.
Jonathan Cohn October 7 ∙ Paid Upgrade to listen 12 minutes 314 58 35 October Surprise: 30% OFF Bulwark+ for a year. Upgrade now. (Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/ The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock, submitted) DONALD TRUMP IS HAVING the federal government send checks to millions of Americans, evidently in hopes they forget all the ways he and the Republicans have made health care harder to obtain and harder to afford.
Or, to put it more bluntly, Trump is using public money to buy votes.
Over the past month, the administration has announced two sets of payments. One of them—$500 per person—is going to about a million people who bought health insurance through HealthCare.gov , the online marketplace that is part of the Affordable Care Act. The other payments, $90 each, are going to about 20 million seniors and people with disabilities who have Medicare Part B, the portion of the program that pays for doctor visits and other outpatient services.
The official rationale for the $500 checks is that they are a “refund” going to people “overcharged” by the Biden administration for HealthCare.gov coverage. A letter accompanying the checks and sent with Trump’s signature says so, before listing off what Trump claims are his many accomplishments on health care, like the agreements he reached with major pharmaceutical companies.
“I am proud to return your money to you,” the letter states, “and I will never stop fighting to put the American People FIRST, restore Affordability, protect your hard-earned money, and lower the Cost of Healthcare.”
But just as those drug company agreements haven’t really produced huge savings, so these new $500 checks to HealthCare.gov buyers aren’t actually a refund for supposed overcharges. In reality, the money comes from
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