Matt Gaetz
09/17/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/17/2024 09:12
Congressman Gaetz Demands Biden-Harris Administration Release 2025 Preliminary Premium Data
Congressman Gaetz Demands Biden-Harris Administration Release 2025 Preliminary Premium Data
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September 17, 2024
Washington, D.C.- Today, U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01) sent a letter to U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure demanding answers for the unprecedented decision to withhold Medicare Part D preliminary premium information during the 2025 season. Additionally, Rep. Gaetz penned an op-ed in The Floridian today in response to CMS not releasing the critical data senior citizens rely on to plan their Medicare Part D enrollment for the following year. The op-ed also addresses how the Inflation Reduction Act is increasing prices for seniors rather than reducing them as the Biden-Harris administration promised.
Full text of Congressman Gaetz's letter to CMS Administrator Brooks-LaSure can be found HERE. Additionally, Rep. Gaetz's op-ed in The Floridian can be found HERE.
LETTER TEXT
Administrator Brooks-LaSure:
Every year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provides Medicare Part D preliminary premium information at the end of July. Seniors rely upon this information to educate themselves about which plans to choose during open enrollment. This year, however, CMS did not do so, and in fact, the July 29, 2024, press release for what little information they did release has an FAQ that explicitly asks: "Why isn't CMS releasing preliminary premium information like CMS usually does in July?"
This unprecedented lack of transparency for the 2025 season was justified, poorly, by an announced, and possibly unlawful, "demonstration program" designed to kick the widely anticipated premium increases caused by the Inflation Reduction Act until after the 2024 election.
Therefore, please provide my office with the following information by October 4, 2024:
- any estimated preliminary premium information produced by CMS for 2025; and
- any communications from November 15, 2023, through July 29, 2024, between the Office of the Administrator and the CMS component responsible for developing the "demonstration program" that refer to the demonstration program; and
- any discussions from January 1, 2024, through July 29, 2024, between the Office of the Administrator and any other CMS employees, including contractors, regarding the decision to refuse to release preliminary premium information on July 29, 2024.
Sincerely,
Matt Gaetz
Member of Congress
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