Trump says US to send one-time $90 payment to 20 million seniors enrolled in Medicare

WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said the US government will send a one-time $90 payment to more than 20 million ‌Americans enrolled in Medicare, a health insurance program for the elderly, ‌to help offset the cost of their monthly medical insurance premiums.

Trump said on social media late ​on Friday the payments will come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, which he said was given $2 billion by Congress to improve the Medicare fee-for-service program.

The announcement is the latest in a series of financial promises the Republican leader has made to ‌voters heading into the November ⁠midterm elections where control of Congress is at stake.

Trump's Republican Party currently has a narrow majority in both the Senate ⁠and the House of Representatives but his approval rating has been low over his handling of the high cost of living for Americans during the US-Israeli war on ​Iran that ​has spiked oil and gas prices.

The White ​House released some details of ‌Trump's plan on its website, saying most eligible seniors will receive the payment in the form of a direct deposit of $90 in early October.

Those without direct deposit will receive a check, also sent in early October, to the mailing address they have registered with Medicare, the White House said.

Last month, Trump proposed sending $5,000 ‌checks to all adult citizens if the ​Republicans keep control of the House and Senate ​in the midterms, though analysts, economists ​and even some Republicans in Congress reacted with skepticism to ‌the plan.

The Trump administration is also ​separately sending $500 payments to ​nearly 1 million Americans in a move that strategists say could potentially influence some election races.

The White House says those payments were a refund ​for what it describes ‌as excessive fees charged to people who purchased health insurance through ​the Affordable Care Act.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Devika ​Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)