Trump promises $500 rebates for Obamacare ‘overcharges’ he blames on Biden

President Trump Thursday promised to send $500 rebate checks to an estimated 1 million enrollees in Affordable Care Act health insurance plans, who he says were overcharged when former President Joe Biden was in the White House.

Trump claimed the money would compensate Obamacare enrollees in 30 mostly Republican states for what he called “gross mismanagement” of ACA funds including user fees from insurance companies that consumers may have unknowingly paid for through higher premiums.

“Our Administration is doing the right thing and giving the money back to the people who were wrongly ripped off,” Trump said in a recorded address released on the White House social media.

Critics derided the plan as a gimmick ahead of the midterm congressional elections.

It wasn’t immediately clear exactly who may get the rebates, how the amount was calculated or whether congressional approval may be required.

New York isn’t among the 30 states where enrollees may receive the rebates, most of which are in the Midwest and South.

The promise comes after Trump pledged to send $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, a plan that critics and allies alike questioned as unrealistic.

Trump and his Republican allies angered many Obamacare enrollees last year when they rejected Democratic proposals to extend COVID-era tax credits for plans, causing premiums to skyrocket for millions. The rebates wouldn’t do anything to address that issue.

In a fact sheet, the White House claimed that Biden’s administration “accumulated a significant surplus of funds that were not used to benefit the Americans who paid these higher premiums.”

Brad Woodhouse of liberal advocacy group Protect Our Care called the rebate plan “an absolute joke” and a “gimmick.”

Republicans and Trump have long received poor grades from American voters over their handling of health care. They once vowed to “repeal and replace” Obamacare but abandoned that platform amid divisions over what the GOP would want to replace the popular program that has dramatically reduced the number of uninsured people.

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