Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), has been in the Republican crosshairs since it was signed into law in March 2010.
President Donald Trump made defeating the government-run healthcare exchange one of his most consistent rallying cries during his 2016 campaign. In a speech posted on C-SPAN, he promised to repeal the law, which he called a disaster that has led to a “catastrophic rise in premiums and debilitating loss of choice.”
However, his tone has changed in recent years. The president, in a post on X (the former Twitter), called political opponents who reference that previous promise liars, saying he wants to replace the ACA with “much better healthcare.”
While his “concepts of a plan” to replace it have not yet come to fruition, on Thursday, Sept. 10, President Trump did announce that some enrollees are entitled to hundreds of dollars.
Government offers $500 Obamacare refunds
The White House claims that under former President Joe Biden, the Obamacare exchanges collected hundreds of millions of dollars in overcharges that it should not have.
The government is therefore issuing $500-per-person refunds to nearly 1 million Americans across 30 states, who, it says, were overcharged due to higher costs “imposed by the Biden Administration’s gross mismanagement of Obamacare.”
“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,” the White House said Sept. 10.
“As a result, the Biden Administration accumulated a significant surplus of funds that were not used to benefit the Americans who paid these higher premiums.”
Who is eligible for the $500 Obamacare refund?
ACA Exchange plan enrollees who do not receive premium assistance under the healthcare act but who were charged fees for that level of coverage in 30 states are eligible for the refund.
Those states include: 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.
Those are the 30 states that use the federal exchange for their Obamacare markets. The checks will be mailed out beginning in October 2026, just weeks before voters head to the polls for the midterm elections.
“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 a video on social media on Sept. 10, as ABC News reported.
“Our administration is doing the right thing and giving the money back to the people who were wrongly ripped off.”
ACA recipients are paying more for Obamacare
Individuals making up to 400 times the federal poverty rate are eligible for Obamacare. But while the exchange was set up to help lower- and middle-income people and families afford health insurance, costs are rising.
Across the 77 insurers in the ACA program that have submitted rate filings, the median proposed premium increase for 2027 is 14%, according to PBS. The insurers cited rising healthcare costs, federal regulatory changes, and the expiration of pandemic-era enhanced subsidies as the biggest factors driving the increase.
Those subsidies, enacted in 2021, expired on Dec. 31, 2025, after the Republican-controlled Congress failed to reach an extension agreement. The subsidies helped ensure no household paid more than 8.5% of their income for benchmark coverage, with $0 premiums for lower-income enrollees.
But now that they have expired, rising costs in the healthcare sector and other pressures are forcing premiums higher.
So even with the $500 refund, ACA enrollees are likely to have difficulty affording their health insurance.
