Trump’s Misleading Medicare Boast
In a Florida speech about senior citizens, President Donald Trump made misleading comparisons of Medicare costs under his administration and his predecessor’s.
Trump claimed “premiums for Medicare health plans went up” under the Obama administration, but his administration “lowered Medicare Advantage premiums” by 34%. He is talking about premiums for Medicare Advantage, a private Medicare option, that most Medicare beneficiaries don’t pay. For those who do pay them, the average national Medicare Advantage monthly premium went up by all of 46 cents under then-President Barack Obama.
As for “Medicare health plans,” there are four parts to Medicare and the largest premium — for Part B, physician coverage — has increased under both administrations. Nearly all Medicare enrollees pay the Part B premium, including Medicare Advantage enrollees.
Trump further said that those “Medicare health plan” premiums went up by 25% in Florida under Obama. But he, again, was talking
