Republicans Demand CBO Analysis of Biden-Harris Bailout of Medicare Part D

Top House Republicans on Monday requested that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate the cost of the Biden-Harris “bailout” of Medicare Part D.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) asked CBO Director Phillip Swagel to analyze the cost of the Biden-Harris administration’s recent Medicare Part D Premium Stabilization program, which Republicans said amounts to a “bailout” of Medicare Part D.

The Republican leaders wrote:

We are concerned that a new rushed demonstration program will result in an unchecked taxpayer-funded bailout to paper over the flaws in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) [P.L. 117- 169]. The IRA included several provisions that significantly redesigned the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit at an estimated cost of nearly $30 billion over ten years.1 These policy changes restructured the Part D market, and prescription drug plan (PDP) sponsors are responding by increasing seniors’ premiums and reducing plan choices. In response, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new “Premium Stabilization Demonstration,” to bail out the large health insurance companies increasing premiums at the expense of taxpayers. [Emphasis added]

As Breitbart News reported, healthcare experts from the Paragon Health Institute found that the Biden-Harris administration moved to bail out Medicare Part D after its Inflation Reduction Act capped out-of-pocket costs for the program at $2,000 per year.

“CMS has yet to release any cost estimates, but some back-of-the-envelope math puts the cost over three years well in excess of $10 billion for a demonstration,” the Paragon Institute’s Jackson Hammond wrote.

“Furthermore, the bailout is only available to stand-alone prescription drug plans, creating a policy imbalance between such plans and those financed by employers and Medicare Advantage organizations,” the Republicans wrote to the CBO director.