EXCLUSIVE: Trump Admin Sends Out Nearly 21 Million Medicare Improvement Fund Payments

The Trump administration has sent out nearly 21 million Medicare Improvement Fund payments Thursday, the Daily Caller has learned.

President Donald Trump announced in early October that he would be utilizing Congress’ $2 billion Medicare Improvement Fund to give enrollees $90 checks to help them pay their premiums. Approximately 19,896,215 direct deposits hit bank accounts and 874,117 checks hit the mail on Thursday, an administration official told the Caller. (RELATED: Demographic That Voted Trump In Large Numbers Turns On His Healthcare Plan, Poll Shows)

“Today, more than 20 million Americans will have $90 in their bank accounts to offset healthcare costs and make life more affordable. These checks come right after the Trump Administration sent out $500 Obamacare refund checks and announced rules for increased price transparency,” White House Spokeswoman Allison Schuster told the Caller in a statement.

“President Trump continues to deliver on his promise to lower costs for American patients by putting them first and taking on the special interests that have used the status quo in Washington to raise healthcare costs for Americans,” she added.

The Medicare Improvement Fund was established by President George W. Bush in 2008, but no administration had previously used it to make direct payments to Medicare beneficiaries. Most Medicare Part B enrollees are eligible.

The payouts come after a September survey found that 54% of voters in rural areas did not approve of the way Trump was handling healthcare.

About a month earlier, Trump announced another healthcare initiative aimed at giving some Americans economic relief. Under the Most Favored Nation pricing model, 26 drugmakers agreed to lower their prices, a move the White House believes will save Americans $600 billion.

The administration has also focused on targeting fraud in healthcare. The Department of Justice announced in June that it had uncovered a record amount of healthcare fraud, identifying $6.5 billion in alleged fraud and seeking to prosecute 455 individuals.

“We are aggressively scaling our offensive against anyone using health care as a front to steal from the American people,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division said in a statement. “As today’s cases and arrests show, there is no case too big, no scheme too complex, and no hiding place too remote for our relentless fraud-fighting team. Our message is simple: if you put profit over patients, you should expect to be put in prison.”