Under Trump, Medicare raises options, lowers costs
For almost four years, President Donald Trump has promoted reforms to Medicare that favor market competition over Washington meddling. The results are in: America’s seniors today enjoy a stronger program that offers more and better benefits at lower costs.
Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the privately administered branch of the program, Medicare Advantage. Trump recently released the 2021Medicare Advantage and Part D plan premiums, plan options and benefits ahead of Medicare Open Enrollment, which begins on Thursday and runs through Dec. 7. Seniors in Texas and around the country will have even more choices, with greater benefits and lower premiums.
The estimated average monthly premium for Medicare Advantage plans in 2021 has plummeted by 34 percent since 2017 to about $21, the lowest level in 14 years. Premiums in Texas are some of the lowest in the country with average premiums at just $11.42. The president’s policies are working for seniors in Texas.
There has been a similar price plunge in Part D, which offers prescription drug coverage: premiums have dropped over 12 percent since 2017, one of the lowest levels since 2013. Combined, beneficiaries have saved approximately $3.4 billion in Medicare Advantage and Part D premium costs since 2017.
Crucially, these price reductions have come with truly innovative new plan options.
Trump has made historic reforms to strengthen competition among private plans in Medicare Advantage. At his direction, we gave plans new flexibility to design innovative and tailored benefit packages, especially for beneficiaries with chronic conditions or low incomes. We removed arbitrary bureaucratic restrictions on the variety of plan designs to encourage competition and opened new avenues to reduce out-of-pocket costs and offer additional benefits.
The result has been an explosion of new plan options. In 2021, there will be over 4,800 Medicare Advantage plan options nationwide, a 77 percent increase since 2017. With recent changes to give plans greater flexibility to assemble health care provider networks in rural areas, beneficiaries in these areas — who have historically had few choices due to limited market competition — will now have more plan options. Such plans nearly doubled since 2017.
Thanks to Trump’s changes, plans can offer tailored benefits for people with a chronic disease like diabetes or asthma that can help them maintain their health. For 2021, about 20 percent of plans will offer targeted supplemental benefits for certain beneficiaries with a chronic illness. Examples include meal delivery, transportation to the grocery store, home cleaning services or pest control. These benefits may not be strictly medical but nevertheless can help them stay healthy and independent.
We eliminated disincentives for plans to offer telehealth benefits, which have proven to be crucial for beneficiaries seeking to maintain access to their doctor during the pandemic. A large majority of plans — over 94 percent — are offering telehealth benefits, such as virtual visits with a primary care doctor or mental health counselor. Telehealth can give seniors who live in remote areas, or who have difficulty getting to the doctor, access to critical medical care.
Seniors with diabetes who rely on insulin will especially like what they find this Open Enrollment. They will have access to over 1,600 plans that offer a broad range of insulins at no more than a $35 copay per month. That adds up to a massive average savings of $446, or 66 percent, a year on out-ofpocket costs for insulin.
With more plans competing on the basis of cost, quality and benefits, we’ve seen more Medicare beneficiaries attracted to Medicare Advantage plans. Projections indicate that 26.9 million beneficiaries, or about 42 percent of people in Medicare, will choose to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan in 2021, a 44 percent increase in enrollment since 2017. We urge each and every senior in Medicare to explore the options available to them this Open Enrollment.
In short, Trump’s policies vividly demonstrate the power of market competition to deliver a better experience for seniors, expanded benefits, more options and lower costs. The gains we’ve seen would have been almost unthinkable four years ago; who knows what the next four might bring.