A day after promising to send $5,000 dividend payments to all Americans, President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would distribute $500 rebate checks to nearly one million Affordable Care Act enrollees in 30 states.
In a video posted on the White House X account, Trump said that these Obamacare policyholders were “wrongly overcharged” during the Biden administration – a claim that some experts dispute.
“Our administration is doing the right thing and giving the money back to the people who were wrongly ripped off,” he said.
Eligible enrollees are those living in the 30 states that used the federal exchange, healthcare.gov, and did not qualify for premium subsidies. (The vast majority of the ACA’s enrollees are subsidized.) The checks will start being sent in October.
The announcement comes at a time when many Obamacare enrollees are struggling to maintain their coverage – or have dropped their policies – after congressional Republicans allowed the enhanced ACA premium subsidies to expire at the end of last year. That sent premium payments skyrocketing for many enrollees, particularly middle-income folks, for 2026.
