White House Announces $500 ACA Rebate Checks

The White House announced that approximately 1 million Affordable Care Act enrollees in 30 states will receive $500 rebate checks, with payments scheduled to begin in October 2026, weeks before the November midterm elections. President Donald Trump announced the plan in a recorded address released on the White House X account on Thursday, saying the refunds would go to people the administration describes as having been overcharged for exchange fees. Our administration is doing the right thing and giving the money back to the people who were wrongly ripped off, Trump said in the video. According to a White House fact sheet, the payments target enrollees who do not receive premium assistance and therefore paid the full cost of exchange user fees, which the administration says generated more revenue than was needed to run the federal marketplace. The 30 states all rely on the federal exchange, Healthcare.gov, rather than operating their own marketplaces.