Sponsors of a House bill to keep Medicare’s Part D premium subsidy running through 2029 say it saved seniors an average of $312 this year, a figure they attribute to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. H.R. 10374 was introduced Sept. 14 and has been referred to committee, while CMS says the demonstration ends after 2026. KFF’s analysis puts the 2026 reduction at $16 a month, or $192 over twelve months.
H.R. 10374 is an introduced bill, and its status ends at committee referral
The Affordable Premiums for Seniors Act of 2026 was introduced Sept. 14 by Reps. Terri Sewell of Alabama and Kathy Castor of Florida. The govinfo record gives the bill’s purpose as requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to continue the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration. It was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce and, in addition, to the Committee on Ways and Means. The page read Sept. 30 documents no action beyond the referral, so the measure is a proposal and not law.
According to the sponsors’ release, the bill would extend the demonstration through calendar year 2029 instead of letting it end in 2026, would require CMS to issue 2027 guidance within 30 days of enactment, and would direct continuation in later years if ending it would raise beneficiary premiums. The 2029 end date and the continuation trigger appear in the release; the govinfo page read for this article does not show the bill text. Sixteen other House members are listed as cosponsors, and the release names no endorsing organizations.
Sewell said in the release that “for seniors living on fixed incomes, every dollar matters” and that ending the program “could mean higher premiums and greater financial strain for millions of seniors.” Castor called the end of the demonstration a “recent HHS scheme to increase Medicare prescription drug costs for seniors.” Both statements are advocacy from the bill’s authors, and neither comes with a plan-level premium projection.
CMS’s stated reason for ending the demonstration after 2026
CMS’s fact sheet on the 2027 national average monthly bid amount says the agency will discontinue the demonstration at the end of contract year 2026 to return the program to operating under traditional market conditions in 2027. It gives the rationale that Part D plan sponsors have sufficient experience under the redesigned benefit to support their assumptions when developing bids. The demonstration was first implemented in 2025.
The same fact sheet sets the 2027 national average monthly bid amount at $296.05 and the base beneficiary premium at $41.33, with base premium growth limited to 6% per year. CMS’s Sept. 28 release projects that the average monthly premium for stand-alone drug plans will rise less than $1, from $35.09 in 2026 to $36 in 2027, and says there is “broad pricing stability across the Part D market.” That is an average across plans and says nothing about any single plan’s increase.
The demonstration was described as narrowed for 2026, and the release calls its discontinuation in 2027 planned. That wording matters for the bill’s premise. CMS is not reversing a decision under pressure in the record read here; it announced the end on July 28 as part of the bid information, two months before the bill was filed, which leaves Congress to override an administrative decision rather than fill a gap.
Two versions of the savings number: $312 versus $16 a month
The sponsors’ release says, “According to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the demonstration saved seniors $312 on average in 2026.” KFF, in a July 29 analysis by Juliette Cubanski, reports that the subsidies reduced the average monthly stand-alone premium by $26 in 2025 and $16 in 2026. Twelve months at $16 comes to $192, and $312 is what twelve months at $26 would total. The sources read do not explain the difference.
KFF puts the demonstration’s total cost at $9.8 billion across 2025 and 2026, and describes two mechanisms: a lower base beneficiary premium, cut by $15 in 2025 and $10 in 2026, and a cap on the year-over-year increase in a plan’s monthly premium, $35 in 2025 and $50 in 2026. Without those subsidies in 2027, KFF writes, some stand-alone enrollees could face a larger premium increase than in recent years, though plan-specific premiums were not yet known when it published.
The competing figures leave the central question open. If the average reduction was $16 a month, the bill’s claim of $312 rests on a different measure or a different year, and the release does not say which. If the sponsors’ number is right for some enrollees, the average CMS reports for 2027 may still hide larger increases at individual plans. Neither claim can be settled from the pages read, and the bill’s 30-day guidance clock would start only after enactment, a date that has not been scheduled.
Open enrollment begins Oct. 15, and premiums for 2027 are already set in the plan materials CMS describes. A bill that reached committee two weeks ago would have to clear both chambers and the White House to alter them, so the number that governs next year’s stand-alone premiums is more likely the one in CMS’s Sept. 28 release than in H.R. 10374.
Stand-alone drug plan premiums for 2027 while the Part D subsidy sits in committee
H.R. 10374 would extend the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration, but it remains in committee, and CMS says the demonstration ends after 2026. That leaves members of stand-alone drug plans to compare 2027 premiums and drug costs plan by plan during the Oct. 15 to Dec. 7 open enrollment period, with no guarantee about what Congress does.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a prescription-by-plan comparison and a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors.
Start comparing drug plans with The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit →
This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Money Overview editorial team.
