WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is promising $500 reimbursement checks to an estimated 1 million Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollees in 30 states, who — according to the White House — were overcharged on insurance-market fees by the Biden administration.
The pledge comes after Trump vowed to send $5,000 to every American adult on Wednesday if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, at a time when affordability has become a central issue for voters ahead of November.
“Relief begins with reimbursing everyone who was overcharged, and the refunds will be issued in just a few weeks,” Trump said in a recorded message released Thursday on the White House’s X account. Enrollees who can expect refunds are those who do not receive help paying their premiums.
Critics labeled the move a “gimmick” that does not constitute a plan to address the steep rise in healthcare costs.
In his message, Trump accused the Biden administration of a “gross mismanagement” of ACA funds, without providing evidence, and argued that the administration collected insurer fees that were passed along to consumers through higher premiums.
In a fact sheet, the White House claimed that the Biden administration “accumulated a substantial surplus of funds that were not used to benefit Americans who paid these higher premiums.” It indicated the refunds would begin going out next month.
Questioning Trump’s assertion that the Biden administration mismanaged the funds, Cynthia Cox, vice president and director of the ACA program at KFF — a nonprofit health policy research organization — said it’s entirely possible that the funds Trump has pledged come from fees collected during his first term. In that period, his administration collected more insurer-user fees than it spent, resulting in an estimated $1 billion in unused funds, according to a KFF analysis.
It is unclear whether the $500 refund represents what any given enrollee might have overpaid, where the money for refunds would come from, and whether congressional approval would be required for the disbursement.
Trump announced the plan as ACA insurance prices have surged for many Americans during his own second term. The Trump administration opposed extending the COVID-era subsidies that helped offset health insurance costs for the majority of enrollees during Biden’s term.
After a Republican-led Congress allowed those subsidies to expire this year, premiums doubled or tripled for many enrollees, prompting millions to downgrade their plans or drop out of the program entirely.
Cox noted that the plan from Trump “doesn’t seem to help people who lost coverage because they couldn’t afford to keep buying insurance.”
Brad Woodhouse, a Democratic strategist and executive director of the advocacy group Protect Our Care, called the refunds plan “a total joke” in a statement.
“Since Republicans took away tax credits from working families, millions have seen their monthly premiums rise by hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars,” Woodhouse said. “At a time when people are barely getting by paying for groceries, rent, and health care costs, this $500 gimmick won’t even begin to lift them out of the hole Trump and the Republicans created.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and a White House official declined to comment, instead directing inquiries to the fact sheet.
Approximately 19 million people obtain insurance through the ACA marketplace.
