Jeff Van Drew's Medicare record runs through three dates in 2025: April 10, when his vote tipped the final budget resolution that cleared room for the tax cuts; May 22, when his yes carried a House bill that froze rules easing poorer seniors' enrollment in help with Medicare premiums; and July 3, when he voted for the final law, a law without precedent in stripping Medicare from people already covered.
Medicare's New Jersey enrollment stood at 1,766,379 in 2024, and each of those people leans on a hospital trust fund that the Medicare trustees now expect to run dry in 2033's second quarter, three months ahead of last year's forecast, mainly because the law's tax changes cut its revenue.
Jeff Van Drew's Votes on the Medicare Changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
- Van Drew Voted for an Unprecedented Medicare Cutoff for Lawfully Present Immigrants Already Enrolled, in July 2025. Jeff Van Drew cast a yes on July 3, 2025 when the House concurred in the Senate's H.R. 1, 218 to 214. Under Section 71201, only citizens, green-card holders and a short list of others stay eligible, so refugees, asylees and many other lawfully present immigrants are shut out. KFF calls it a first: "This is the first time that Congress has eliminated Medicare coverage" for people who were lawfully eligible. KFF, citing the Congressional Budget Office, puts the number losing Medicare at about 100,000 by 2034, and under CMS's proposed timeline those already identified lose it on February 1, 2027. The same law loosens the orphan-drug carve-out from Medicare price talks, at a cost to Medicare of another $8.8 billion, by the Congressional Budget Office's estimate.
- Van Drew Cast the Deciding Vote for a House Bill Freezing Two Rules That Ease Poorer Seniors' Enrollment in Premium Help, in May 2025. H.R. 1's House win on May 22, 2025 came by 215 to 214, a single member voting present, and Van Drew's vote made the difference. The House text, like the law that followed, shelved most of two enrollment rules from 2023 and 2024; those rules eased the paperwork that keeps seniors with little income out of the state-run programs paying their Medicare premiums. An earlier Congressional Budget Office projection put the cost at 1.3 million Medicare enrollees going without Medicaid assistance in 2034, and KFF's example of a senior who loses that help ends up "paying $185 per month in Medicare premiums, or about 20% of income."
- Van Drew Tipped the April Budget Plan Behind Tax Cuts That Shrink Medicare's Hospital Fund, in 2025. The April 10, 2025 tally on the last version of H.Con.Res. 14 stood at 216 to 214 with Van Drew among the yes votes; had he flipped, the resolution would have tied and failed. Its tax instruction gave Ways and Means room for changes that "increase the deficit by not more than $4,500,000,000,000". Van Drew went on to vote for the final law on July 3, 2025; it shrinks the income tax bite on Social Security checks, and part of that tax had been routed to Medicare's hospital fund; in KFF's account of the trustees' report, that revenue is "lower than previously projected due to changes in the 2025 budget reconciliation bill," the main reason the fund's projected depletion slid three months earlier, to the second quarter of 2033.
What Jeff Van Drew's Medicare Votes Mean for New Jersey Seniors
- 1.77 million New Jersey Medicare enrollees face an earlier shortfall in the fund that pays their hospital bills. Of the 1,766,379 New Jersey residents on Medicare in 2024, KFF tallies 1,054,086 in the traditional program. The hospital trust fund behind their inpatient stays, nursing-facility care after a hospitalization and home health visits is now projected to be depleted in the second quarter of 2033, after which Medicare could not pay those bills in full without new revenue.
- Van Drew's vote froze rules easing enrollment in premium help that runs through Medicaid, which covers 14,000 seniors in his district. KFF's district figures list 14,000 Medicaid enrollees age 65 or older in New Jersey's 2nd District for 2025. The help low-income seniors get with Medicare premiums and copays runs through Medicaid, and the paused rules were meant to bring more eligible seniors into it; without them, a senior who misses out can spend about a fifth of a small income on premiums alone.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jeff Van Drew on Medicare
What is Jeff Van Drew's record on Medicare under Trump?
Jeff Van Drew cast deciding votes in April and May 2025 for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's budget plan and House bill, and on July 3, 2025 the final law got his yes. Its provisions cut some lawfully present immigrants off Medicare, puts premium-aid rules for poorer seniors on ice, widens the orphan-drug exemption from price negotiation at an $8.8 billion cost, and moves the hospital trust fund's projected depletion a quarter earlier within 2033, to its second quarter. In New Jersey, 1,766,379 people were on Medicare in 2024.
On what date do lawfully present immigrants in New Jersey lose Medicare because of Jeff Van Drew's vote?
Because of the law Jeff Van Drew voted for, refugees, asylees, people with Temporary Protected Status and other lawfully present immigrants without green cards are being dropped from Medicare, with the Social Security Administration sending the notices. Under the timeline in CMS's proposed rule, people identified during the grace period were to get first-round notices sometime from August to November 2026 and final notices in late December 2026, with Medicare stopping for them on February 1, 2027; people identified later lose it at the end of the month after their notice, the Center for Medicare Advocacy says.
When will the orphan-drug change Jeff Van Drew voted for raise Medicare drug costs?
The change in the law Jeff Van Drew voted for applies starting with the negotiation round chosen in February 2026, for negotiated prices that take effect on or after January 1, 2028, according to KFF. KFF expects it to push back selection of the cancer drugs Keytruda and Opdivo "by at least one year"; in 2023 Medicare and its enrollees put $5.6 billion toward Keytruda and $2.0 billion toward Opdivo.
How long does the freeze on premium-help enrollment rules that Jeff Van Drew voted for last?
The law Jeff Van Drew voted for bars the government from carrying out most of the 2023 rule on Medicare Savings Programs until October 1, 2034, KFF reports, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that moratorium alone lowers federal Medicaid spending by $66 billion over ten years because fewer seniors enroll in the programs that pay their premiums.
Last updated: 2026-10-27