Trump promises $500 rebate checks for 1 million Affordable Care Act enrollees from 30 states
Trump claimed these Americans were charged excessive fees under Biden.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will send $500 rebate checks to nearly one million Affordable Care Act enrollees from 30 states, whom he claimed were charged excessive fees under former President Joe Biden.
In a video posted on social media by the White House Thursday morning, Trump claimed that these rebate checks would go out in "just a few weeks" -- as affordability remains a key voter issue as the high-stakes midterm election approaches.
"Nearly 1 million hardworking Americans in 30 states will soon be getting refunds of $500 each with a check sent to their home address. In many cases, these refunds will cover the entire spike in your insurance caused by Democrats, who solely work to protect big insurance companies," Trump said in the video.
Trump alleged that Americans who bought health insurance through the Obamacare exchange and healthcare.gov "were massively overcharged."
"To put it mildly, they were forced to pay excessive fees totaling at least $500 million," Trump added, claiming that "the last administration knew about this, and they studied it, but they kept the money. They just kept it. They never let anyone know."
ABC News has reached out to the former President Joe Biden's team for comment.
The White House claims the funds for the rebate checks come from a surplus of unused exchange fee collections. It's unclear where that money is or the mechanisms of its disbursement.
"The Biden Administration overcharged Americans through Obamacare plan exchange 'user fees' that were passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums, funding the operations of the federal Obamacare exchange far in excess of what was needed to run the exchange," according to a fact sheet provided by the White House.
Last year, Affordable Care Act subsidies became a sticking point during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, and Congress allowed the subsidies to expire this year.
Insurance premiums have gone up significantly -- around 20% -- since the expiration of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act -- with
Millions of Americans have dropped health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act -- with about 19.2 million people enrolled in the first two months of 2026, down by about 3 million people compared to the same time last year, according to a Department of Health and Human Services data from earlier this summer. HHS attributed the lower number of enrollees to its efforts to crack down on fraud, though the decrease in enrollees came amid rising costs and a pause of the enhanced premium tax credits.
Trump's Thursday announcement, meant to target healthcare costs just weeks ahead of the midterm election, included a push for Congress to move forward on his healthcare platform.
In January, Trump unveiled a framework for his healthcare platform, what he called the "Great Healthcare Plan." He promised his plan would lower drug prices and asked Congress to make law the deals he has already made with pharmaceutical companies but hasn’t backed any official legislation. In his video on Thursday, Trump also reinforced his earlier push to have healthcare coverage payments directly to Americans instead of working through insurance companies.
“The cost of healthcare for all Americans is coming down under my plan. We will stop all payments to big insurance and give the money directly to the people, who will then be able to buy better healthcare at a much lower cost and keep the money and keep the difference,” Trump said.
The rebate announcement came just after Trump announced in a speech at the Republican Midterm Convention on Wednesday night that he would give American adults a $5,000 "dividend" if Republicans kept the majorities in the House and Senate this fall and that at least some of that money would come from tariff revenue.
It also comes after the president promised last year to use tariff revenue to give Americans a $2,000 "dividend" -- something that never materialized.
ABC News' Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
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