The Trump administration said it would issue $500 payments to nearly 1 million Americans, citing what it described as “overcharges” for people who purchased health insurance through federal Affordable Care Act exchanges.
The payments are expected to be sent in October, the White House announced Thursday, just weeks before the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress, according to a Bloomberg report. The timing of the announcement comes as Americans broadly disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of the cost of living, an issue that has weighed on Republican candidates in key races across the country. The extraordinary proposal highlighted the president’s efforts to avoid major losses in November, which could leave him a lame duck and trigger congressional investigations into his administration and family businesses.
The announcement came a day after Trump floated $5,000 payments to every adult US citizen if Republicans retain their congressional majorities. Still, sending the payments, which the White House said would cost nearly $500 million, could intensify concerns about inflation, as well as the nation’s ballooning budget deficits and public debt.
The White House said in a statement that it was making the Obamacare-related payments because of what it described as a “significant surplus of funds” accumulated under the Biden administration. It accused the Biden administration of charging people who used federal exchanges “excess” user fees “in the form of higher premiums.
