Prior to the election last fall President Trump announced he was going to send millions of senior citizens discount cards to help pay for the cost of prescription drugs. But he didn’t give any details on how the federal government would implement such a plan, including how the cards, estimated to cost in the billions of dollars, would be paid for.
He said 33 million Medicare beneficiaries would “soon” receive a card in the mail that could be used to help pay for up to $200 in prescription drug costs. A White House official said at the time that the cards would be mailed out “in the coming weeks” and could be used to pay for the cost of prescription-drug copays.
We reported on the promised cards periodically during the fall even as they encountered one obstacle after another, including an opinion by the top government lawyer in the Department of Health and Human Services that the cards would be in violation of federal election laws because they could be viewed as an attempt by Trump to buy votes using federal taxpayer dollars.
As a result, the cards were delayed until after the election. The last thing we had heard and that we reported on was that the cards were to be mailed out by Jan. 1. However, last week it was officially announced that the promised cards would not be mailed and that the idea is dead.
