- Joined
- Oct 14, 2015
- Messages
- 61,007
- Reaction score
- 53,974
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Other
President Trump unexpectedly announced Thursday that his administration will send $200 discount cards to 33 million older Americans to help them defray the cost of prescription drugs — appealing to a significant voting constituency weeks before the November elections. The president tucked the announcement into a speech that he portrayed as his health-care vision, without including specifics about how the government would pay for it or which of the nation’s Medicare recipients would receive it. White House officials said the price tag, about $7 billion, could be paid for through an experimental program to lower Medicare drug prices that remains merely a proposal. The idea of a drug card was not mentioned in a briefing for journalists detailing highlights of the president’s planned remarks about two hours before his speech to an audience of health professionals and supporters in Charlotte.
One White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid, said the idea of a drug discount card was a “last-minute thing that is still being worked out” and originated in the office of White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. . . . The coronavirus pandemic has ratcheted up the salience of access to insurance and affordable care as shutdowns to protect people from infection have caused millions of Americans to lose jobs and the health benefits their employers provided. A White House spokesman said the drug discount cards Trump mentioned could be used to offset co-pays for the medicines of people receiving the cards. . .
In his remarks, Trump called the discount cards a “historic provision to benefit our great seniors.” He said 33 million people on Medicare “will soon receive a card in the mail containing $200 that they can use to help pay for prescription drugs. Nobody’s seen this before. “These cards are incredible,” he said, adding that they “will be mailed out in coming weeks.””
[cont.]
Yeah, let's not work with the Dems on a second COVID stimulus that might actually help. Have some cake crumbs instead. That $200 will buy you, I dunno, eight of the thirty pills you need.
The upshot is the probability of backfire.
One White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid, said the idea of a drug discount card was a “last-minute thing that is still being worked out” and originated in the office of White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. . . . The coronavirus pandemic has ratcheted up the salience of access to insurance and affordable care as shutdowns to protect people from infection have caused millions of Americans to lose jobs and the health benefits their employers provided. A White House spokesman said the drug discount cards Trump mentioned could be used to offset co-pays for the medicines of people receiving the cards. . .
In his remarks, Trump called the discount cards a “historic provision to benefit our great seniors.” He said 33 million people on Medicare “will soon receive a card in the mail containing $200 that they can use to help pay for prescription drugs. Nobody’s seen this before. “These cards are incredible,” he said, adding that they “will be mailed out in coming weeks.””
[cont.]
Yeah, let's not work with the Dems on a second COVID stimulus that might actually help. Have some cake crumbs instead. That $200 will buy you, I dunno, eight of the thirty pills you need.
The upshot is the probability of backfire.
