Trump Administration to Send $90 Rebate Checks to 20.8 Million Seniors on Medicare
The administration is tapping the Medicare Improvement Fund for premium rebates, with payments expected before the November midterms.
President Donald Trump on Friday announced his administration will send $90 rebate checks to millions of seniors on Medicare Part B, the latest in a series of direct payment pledges ahead of the November midterm elections.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirmed the plan in a fact sheet published Saturday, stating that 20.8 million Americans are eligible for the premium rebates. The agency said some beneficiaries will receive a direct deposit in early October, while others will receive a paper check from the Treasury Department later this month — both methods timed to arrive before the Nov. 3 election.
According to CMS, the money will come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, a reserve established by Congress in 2008 to finance general improvements to the Medicare program. The agency noted that Congress has previously withdrawn from the fund on numerous occasions to offset new spending, and the administration claims Trump is the first president to tap it for direct beneficiary payments.
The $90 rebate is separate from Trump's earlier pledge of $500 rebate checks to roughly one million Affordable Care Act recipients across 30 states. The White House has claimed, without providing evidence, that those beneficiaries were overcharged during the Biden administration.
Trump has also promised a $5,000 "dividend payment" to every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans win both chambers in November — a pledge that has drawn skepticism from lawmakers on both sides, particularly as the president has not provided details on how it would be funded. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC News last month the dividend would not come from taxpayer dollars, but the mechanism remains unspecified.
Previous Trump payment pledges — including a 20% return from DOGE savings in February 2025, and a "dividend of at least $2,000 a person" from tariff revenue later that year — never materialized.
Reporting by NBC News. Read the original report: Trump pledges to send $90 checks to millions of seniors on Medicare.
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