Trump offering $90 payments to 20 million Medicare recipients

John Harney, Bloomberg News on Oct 3, 2026

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said his administration would soon send checks of “nearly $100” to more than 20 million older Americans to “help pay for their Medicare Part B premiums.”

The president, who made the announcement in a post on Truth Social late Friday, said the money would come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, established in 2008 to enhance the original Medicare health insurance program.

The post and a White House fact sheet detailing the plan appeared as Trump returned to Washington from a midterm campaign rally in Mobile, Alabama. The elections are barely a month away and his Republican Party faces robust challenges from Democrats for their narrow control of the House and Senate, even in states like Alabama which have long been dominated by the GOP.

In North Carolina, for instance, a top super political action committee will cease funding advertisements for the Republican Senate candidate, Michael Whatley.

With polls showing that voters feel Trump’s economic policies have failed to allay their chief concern — the cost of living — and with the Iran war increasingly unpopular, the Medicare checks mark yet another pledge to put money in the pockets of Americans.

“Most eligible seniors will receive the payment in the form a direct deposit of $90 in early October,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “Those without direct deposit will receive a check, also sent in early October, to the mailing address they have registered with Medicare.”

Medicare Part B covers doctor visits, outpatient treatment and preventative tests.

Trump said the payments were separate from another White House initiative to send “refund” checks to people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Those payments, as described by the White House, would cost nearly $500 million.

At the end of the Truth Social post on Friday, Trump repeated another proposal: to give $5,000 to every adult U.S. citizen, but “if and when the Republicans win the Midterm Elections!”