White House to issue $500 refunds to nearly 1 million Obamacare enrollees
The administration will send $500 checks to about one million people in 30 states who have ACA plans but did not receive subsidies, with payments slated to begin in October.
The White House announced Thursday that it will distribute $500 payments to roughly one million Americans enrolled in Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plans across 30 states. The refunds are intended to return excess "user fees" that insurers passed on to consumers through higher premiums.
According to a White House official, the majority of the payments will go to individuals earning more than 400% of the federal poverty level who are not eligible for subsidies, as well as to those earning between 100% and 400% of the poverty line who did not receive subsidies. The administration says it has already identified eligible recipients and that checks will start being mailed in October.
User fees are collected from insurers that sell plans on the federal exchange, Healthcare.gov, and are used to fund the website, call centers, and navigator programs that assist consumers with enrollment. Cynthia Cox, director of the ACA program at the health-policy research group KFF, explained that the fee is built into premiums and that a surplus does not necessarily indicate that consumers were overcharged, noting that the current administration reduced spending on certain programs while maintaining the fee.
The refund program is unrelated to a separate $5,000 payment proposed by President Donald Trump for Republican-controlled Congress. The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The states involved include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.