Trump administration to send $500 payments to nearly 1 million Obamacare participants

The Trump administration is promising to send $500 payments to nearly 1 million Affordable Care Act participants in 30 states, the White House’s latest effort to address cost-of-living concerns ahead of the November midterm elections.

In a fact sheet on the initiative, the White House said the payments are a refund for ACA plan exchange “user fees” that it said the Biden administration passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums.

The White House said the checks are part of the administration’s goal to lower healthcare costs for Americans. The payments are set to go out starting in October.

“President Trump is delivering on promises to lower costs for American patients by putting them first and taking on big health insurance companies, drug manufacturers and other corporate giants that have used the status quo in Washington to raise healthcare costs for Americans,” the White House said on Thursday. 

The announcement comes less than two months before the midterm elections, with pocketbook issues expected to be a key issue as voters cast their ballots. Three-quarters of nearly 2,200 respondents said their income is not keeping up with inflation, according to a July CBS News poll.

Mr. Trump separately pledged this week to send a $5,000 dividend to every U.S. adult if Republicans maintain control of Congress after the midterms. 

Monthly premiums for Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, health plans have soared after Congress last year allowed coverage subsidies to expire. Some enrollees subsequently downgraded their plans, while others have decided to forgo insurance altogether after their plan costs spiked.

In a KFF poll fielded between February and March, 80% of returning ACA participants said their premiums, deductibles, or coinsurance and copays were higher than last year.

Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, said in a statement on Friday that the Trump administration’s ACA payments will mostly go to “middle-income people who lost subsidies when Congress did not extend enhanced tax credits, and are now paying in many cases thousands of dollars more.”

The checks will cover roughly 5% of the 19 million people who receive insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange.