6 Surprising Ways Retiring Could Be Easier Financially Under Trump
Written by
Stacy Sare Cohen
Edited by
Ashley Barnett
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While Trump hasn’t gotten into the nitty-gritty of his plan for helping seniors if he’s elected President, reviewing his track record in the White House from 2016 to 2020 and watching him in the media can provide a clue of how life could be financially easier for retirees under a Trump win.
Here are six unexpected ways a Trump presidency could affect your wallet if you’re over 65.
Cut Drug Costs for Seniors
When Trump took office, basic Part D premiums decreased by 13.5% from $34.70 in 2017 to $30 in 2020. The Trump Administration saved seniors $1.9 billion throughout that period. Part D enrollment increased 12.2% between 2017 and 2019. If he wins the White House, we’ll likely see more ways retirees can save on prescription drug plans. Seema Verma, the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said that under Donald Trump’s leadership, CMS had lowered prescription drug costs.
During his presidency, Trump boosted competition among drug providers and reported saving taxpayers around $6 billion through cheaper Medicare subsidies. Verma added that the Trump Administration offered seniors lower costs at a time when healthcare costs continued to go up.
Verma said that Following Trump’s initiative, CMS implemented actions to drive down costs for seniors in the drug program.
Increase Transparency and Choice in Healthcare
Today, both presidential candidates and the Biden Administration realize the importance of negotiating with big pharma to provide low-cost prescription options for seniors, especially insulin, whose costs have risen astronomically.
During the coronavirus pandemic, former president Trump and CMS worked together to give retirees broader choices in plans, making it easier to understand their options and put beneficiaries in control. CMS created tools that increased transparency in pricing to support the initiative so seniors could compare plans and find affordable options in the following ways.
- Reduced out-of-pocket prescription drug costs by implementing tools that provided clinicians with costs to discuss options with patients when prescriptions were written.
- Passed legislation to ban gag clauses, “which enabled pharmacists to share information about other ways to access cheaper prescription drug options.
- Mailed patients an Explanation of Benefits document each month that introduces prescription increases and lower-priced alternatives.
- Empowered Part D patients by offering more drug choices available in the private sector.
- Reducing the cost of medicines for low-income beneficiaries.
- Allowed substitutions on formulary lists so people could access lower cost-sharing options.
- Increased competition by making more plan options available.
Provide Job Training for Retirees With Disabilities
At a time when over seven million job openings could not be filled, Trump provided apprenticeship programs to fill the gap in the workforce, helping 450,000 job seekers with disabilities, including retirees, reenter the workforce.
Trump signed an Executive Order instructing the Labor Department to develop these apprenticeship programs in 2017. Programs taught participants in-demand skills and connected them with job opportunities. The average beginning wage for graduates was $70,000 per year. Trump could likely continue these types of apprenticeship programs.
The Biden Administration has also established student loan forgiveness programs for many Americans. If Trump becomes president, these programs could likely continue.
Eliminate Student Loan Debt for Disabled Veterans and Find Others Civilian Jobs
During the Trump Administration, he helped hundreds of thousands of veterans find civilian jobs in the workforce. The former President also wiped away federal student loan debt incurred by U.S. veterans if they were fully disabled.
Many retired veterans had finished their tours decades ago and still owed thousands of dollars in student loans, creating hardships for them and their families. If the veterans were permanently disabled, their loan debt could be forgiven, alleviating that financial stress.
Provide Retirement Planning Incentives for Seniors and Businesses
Trump originally drafted the SECURE Act, an initiative to incentivize employees to prepare for retirement. The Act offered various options and incentives for workers and employers to access saving options and tax-advantaged savings programs that could be accessible to everyone.
One of the key goals of the SECURE Act was to incentivize employees to offer new 401(k) plans and broaden access to existing plans for a larger number of workers than what was available before Trump’s time in office.
He drafted legislation that provided businesses with tax credits for starting new retirement plans for employees, which included designing auto-enrollment features that made it simpler for employees to enroll in a retirement plan.
Some of the changes the SECURE Act introduced included lifting the maximum age to contribute to traditional IRAs, raising the age for accessing minimum distributions from retirement accounts, and providing additional tax incentives for employers that matched worker retirement savings plans.
Now, renamed the SECURE Act 2.0, with some modifications, it’s more than likely that Donald Trump will provide additional retirement savings investing incentives, especially with the threat of the Social Security Trust fund at risk.
No Taxes on Social Security or Raising the Eligibility Age
“Seniors should not pay tax on Social Security,” Trump [posted] on his social media pages, said Aaron Cirksena, founder and CEO of MDRN Capital.
If Trump becomes president, he said he will use Social Security to strengthen the economy without raising taxes or increasing the age eligibility for retirees to qualify for benefits, said Cirksena.
“This would benefit retirees [by enabling them to] save money and gain more stability, ” Cirksena said.
Editor’s note on election coverage: GOBankingRates is nonpartisan and strives to cover all aspects of the economy objectively and present balanced reports on politically focused finance stories. For more coverage on this topic, please check out 5 Surprising Ways Retiring Could Be Easier Financially Under Harris.
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