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Trump Is Sending $500 Obamacare ‘Refunds.’ Here’s Who Qualifies for Checks
By Pete Grieve MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
The refund plan came out the same day Trump separately promised in a convention speech to send $5,000 dividend checks to “every adult” if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections.
The Trump administration says it began mailing $500 “refunds” on Wednesday to nearly 1 million people enrolled in health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
The White House claims that ACA enrollees in 30 states were overcharged under the previous administration, resulting in a surplus that can be returned.
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The administration is sending the $500 refunds as Treasury Department checks, accompanied by a letter from President Donald Trump.
The refund plan was first reported by Axios on Sept. 9, the same day Trump separately promised in a convention speech to send $5,000 dividend checks to “every adult” if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections. Democrats immediately criticized both plans to send checks, accusing the White House of trying to buy votes.
That’s not how the White House describes its “Obamacare refunds.” The administration says the checks are possible because of a surplus of user fees, which are collected in states that use the federal health insurance marketplace and Healthcare.gov.
“For years, the Biden Administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov. That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government,” Trump reportedly wrote in the letter. “You have paid into this flawed System, and now you are finally getting something back.”
In a video message posted on social media, Trump suggested the refunds will be automatically mailed to eligible recipients’ home addresses.
Trump said the $500 checks will provide relief for Obamacare customers who paid higher health care premiums this year after Congress did not extend enhanced tax credits last year. Those federal subsidies lowered health insurance costs for millions of Affordable Care Act enrollees from 2021 to 2025.
About 23 million Americans selected marketplace coverage this year — in many cases, because they do not have health insurance through an employer.
Who is eligible for Obamacare refunds?
The White House said refunds will be sent to nearly 1 million people in a list of 30 states who are insured under the Affordable Care Act and do not receive premium assistance.
Individuals with incomes over about $63,000 are typically ineligible for premium assistance, as the threshold is 400% of the poverty line, potentially making them eligible for $500 checks.
That means Trump’s $500 refunds will be sent to people who paid higher premiums — without subsidies — when insurance passed along “excess” fees. However, critics of the plan say it also means the refunds are going to higher earners within the ACA’s customer base, while most households receiving subsidies will get nothing.
The full list of states that rely on the federal exchange and use Healthcare.gov is: 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.
Places that run their own marketplaces, meaning residents are ineligible for these refunds, include: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C.
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Pete Grieve is a New York-based reporter who covers personal finance news. At Money, Pete reports stories that affect Americans’ wallets on topics including insurance, autos, housing, credit cards, retirement and taxes. He studied political science and photography at the University of Chicago, where he was editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon, the student newspaper. Pete began his career as a professional journalist in 2019. Prior to joining Money, he was a health reporter for Spectrum News based in Columbus, Ohio, where he wrote digital stories and appeared on TV to provide coverage to a statewide audience. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times and CNN Politics. Pete received extensive journalism training through Report for America, a nonprofit organization that places reporters in newsrooms to cover underreported issues and communities, and has attended journalism conferences from organizations including Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. He has discussed his reporting in interviews with outlets including the Columbia Journalism Review, This Morning With Gordon Deal and WBEZ (Chicago's NPR station). He’s been a panelist at the Chicago Headline Club’s FOIA Fest and he received the Institute on Political Journalism’s $2,500 Award for Excellence in Collegiate Reporting in 2017. An essay he wrote for Grey City magazine was later published in a 2020 book, Remembering J. Z. Smith: A Career and its Consequence.