Over the course of Donald Trump’s second term, the president has repeatedly floated the possibility of sending checks to Americans. The Republican has talked about $5,000 dividend checks from the failed DOGE initiative, $2,000 checks related to his failed tariff policy and even rebate checks after Republicans let Affordable Care Act subsidies expire late last year.
No one has actually received any of that money, but Trump apparently expects people to fall for the same trick more than once, which helps explain why he announced an absurd plan on Wednesday night to send imaginary $5,000 checks to every American adult — but only if Republicans fare well in this year’s midterm elections.
Obviously, this con is literally unbelievable, but as it turns out, the GOP administration is on track to deliver some rebate funds to some Americans before Election Day 2026 — and unlike Trump’s many broken promises, this money is apparently real.
In a pre-recorded video recorded in the Oval Office and released Thursday morning by the White House, the president announced plans to deliver $500 in health insurance rebates to nearly a million Americans across 30 states. (These states rely on healthcare.gov, instead of overseeing their own insurance marketplaces.)
“The relief begins with refunding everyone who was overcharged,” Trump said in the two-minute video. “The rebates are going out in just a few weeks.”
He added, “In many cases, these refunds will cover the entire spike in your insurance.” He neglected to mention the inconvenient fact that it was the Republican White House and the Republican Congress who were solely and directly responsible for that spike in the first place.
In a written statement, the administration said the new policy is the result of the Biden administration having “accumulated a significant surplus of funds that were not used.” An Axios report fleshed out the relevant details:
The money for the rebates would come from what the White House says is a $500 million fund of excess fees paid by Affordable Care Act recipients. … In 2023, the Biden administration proposed using the fees from this fund to help provide no-cost contraception for people whose ACA insurance plans didn’t cover it, officials said.
Republicans in Congress objected, saying the fees were dedicated to the upkeep of the Obamacare exchanges and that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services lacked the authority to use the money for another purpose. Biden administration officials ultimately withdrew their proposal.
The money in that fund, however, still exists, and now it’s poised to finance the $500 checks.
This is not, however, a substitute for an actual healthcare policy, and it will do little to help the tens of millions of families who now pay higher healthcare costs as a result of Trump’s agenda.
Indeed, Brad Woodhouse, the executive director of advocacy group Protect Our Care, called the rebate plan “an absolute joke” in a statement.
“Five hundred dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to what Americans are paying because Trump and Republicans gutted health care to bankroll massive tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations,” Woodhouse added. “Since Republicans took away tax credits from working families, millions of people have seen their monthly premiums rise by hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
“As a result, millions of people have been forced to drop coverage altogether, leaving them vulnerable to bankruptcy if they get sick. At a time when people are scraping by to keep up with the high cost of groceries, rent, and health care, this $500 gimmick won’t even begin to dig them out of the hole that Trump and Republicans created.”
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