A few weeks ago, I wrote about how President Trump’s decision to send rebates to some Obamacare customers represented sound policy. His more recent announcement about Medicare rebates to seniors, not so much.
While the Obamacare rebates represented a refund of user fees that the Obamacare enrollees themselves had paid, the Medicare rebates instead comprise general taxpayer dollars — in other words, a shift of cash from the young to seniors. More importantly, Medicare faces major financing challenges in the next few years, such that spending — as opposed to saving — more cash on the program will further undermine its solvency.
