The Trump administration has begun sending $500 checks under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to enrollees who were allegedly overcharged for coverage. The Treasury Department is issuing checks to 950,000 Americans in 30 states because of marketplace “user fee” overcharges, according to the administration. about who is eligible, where checks are sent and when they may arrive. Who is eligible? An administration official told ABC News on Thursday that the primary recipients of the checks will be people with incomes “above” 400% of the federal poverty level. The federal poverty level is $15,960 per year for an individual in the lower 48 states and Washington, DC. However, some beneficiaries are those earning between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level who did not receive subsidies, the official said. Residents in the following states will receive checks: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The administration official told ABC News that residents of these 30 states “do not operate their own ACA insurance plan exchanges and instead rely on federal exchanges run by [the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services]”The official said residents of the remaining 20 states will not receive checks “because their states manage their exchanges and therefore the federal government did not oversee the collection of user fees.” Texas and Florida have the largest number of people who will receive refund checks, followed by Wisconsin, Arizona and Oregon, respectively, according to data provided by the administration. Gerard Anderson, a professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News that he is skeptical that the checks go to the neediest Americans. The payment “is not targeted to the people most likely to have been harmed by policy changes made by the administration, including the end of tax credits,” Anderson said. The subsidies, or premium tax credits, helped reduce or eliminate the out-of-pocket cost of monthly premiums for those purchasing insurance through the health insurance marketplace. They expired at the end of last year and have not yet been renewed. Anderson added that the amount of the check is also not tied to a person’s medical condition. person, which. has a big impact on the cost of your premiums. When will the checks be delivered? Initially, the administration said the checks would be sent to eligible Americans starting in October 2026, but the administration official said the checks were sent out starting Wednesday. It is unclear how long it will take for eligible Americans to receive the checks, according to the administration official. “The money belongs to working Americans, not the government, and now I’m giving it back to you.” The checks are separate from a proposal Trump made during the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas to offer a $5,000 “dividend” to all American adults if Republicans maintain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections. Copyright © 2026 ABC News Internet Ventures.
