Trump announces one-off $90 Medicare Part B payments

President Donald Trump’s administration says it will make one-off $90 payments to help more than 20 million Medicare Part B enrollees pay their premiums. It expects most eligible recipients to receive a direct deposit in early October 2026; cheques for those without direct deposit are due to be sent during the same period. [1]

The White House says most Part B enrollees qualify, except people whose premiums Medicaid already pays and those who pay an income-related monthly adjustment. It says the payments will come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, whose amount Congress set at $2.041 billion in September. [1] [4]

Even if that entire amount were available solely for $90 payments, it could finance no more than about 22.68 million of them. That is roughly 35% of the 64.2 million people KFF counted as enrolled in both Medicare Parts A and B in March. Paying a majority of that group would cost more than approximately $2.89 billion. The calculation limits the number of payments the cited fund alone could support across that broad population; it does not determine who is eligible. Whether Medicare Advantage members qualify remains unclear. They accounted for 35.2 million of the March total. [1] [4] [7]