Trump administration to mail $500 ACA refund checks to nearly 1 million recipients
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The Treasury will begin issuing $500 checks on Sept. 30 to about 950,000 Americans in 30 states, citing alleged overcharges by the previous administration's health insurance exchange.
The Treasury Department will start mailing $500 checks on Sept. 30 to roughly 950,000 Americans in 30 states, according to a White House official. The payments are presented as refunds for what the Trump administration describes as overcharges incurred through the Affordable Care Act's federal exchange under the prior administration.
Recipients will also receive letters signed by President Donald Trump. In the letters, Trump states that the Biden administration “overcharged” consumers to fund HealthCare.gov and that the money “belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government.”
The refund program was announced in a video posted by the White House on Sept. 10, coinciding with the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. The administration says the surplus resulted from user fees collected from health-insurance companies that were passed on to consumers as higher premiums.
The checks are being sent to residents of states that rely on the federal exchange rather than operating their own marketplaces. States not receiving checks operate their own exchanges, and the federal government did not collect user fees there.
Most eligible individuals earn around 400% of the federal poverty line—approximately $64,000 for a single person or $132,000 for a family of four—though some recipients fall within the 100-400% range.
The distribution occurs weeks before the November midterm elections, a period when health-care costs remain a prominent political issue.