{"id":2663163,"date":"2026-09-17T08:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigntrump-admin-to-pay-americans-back-for-bidens-obamacare-overcharges\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T08:29:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:29:02","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigntrump-admin-to-pay-americans-back-for-bidens-obamacare-overcharges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigntrump-admin-to-pay-americans-back-for-bidens-obamacare-overcharges\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump To Repay Americans For Biden&#8217;s Obamacare Overcharges"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigntrump-admin-to-pay-americans-back-for-bidens-obamacare-overcharges%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2663163&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Trump administration has proposed returning surplus user fees from Obamacare exchanges as rebates to help offset rising premium costs for certain enrollees. Specifically, nearly 1 million unsubsidized individuals in 30 states utilizing the federal exchange architecture could receive around $500 in rebates, funded by excess fees that fund exchange operations like IT and customer service. These rebates aim to provide targeted relief to middle- and higher-income households affected by the expiration of enhanced subsidies last year, which primarily benefitted lower-income enrollees. While the policy has a sound logical basis-using surplus funds rather than increasing future premiums-some details remain unclear, such as eligibility criteria and the calculation methods for the rebate amount. Critics suggest it might be more efficient to simply reduce user fees going forward rather than issuing separate rebates. this strategy could help soften the financial impact on certain middle- and upper-income households while addressing excess fee revenues collected from them.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Trump administration recently announced a proposal to issue payments to individuals that makes a good deal of policy sense. No, I don\u2019t mean the proposal for $5,000 rebate checks, which has myriad policy and political flaws.<\/p>\n<p>But <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >refunding excess user fees<\/a> for people enrolled in Obamacare Exchange plans would help offset rising premium costs. And lowering user fees in the future would also mitigate against future premium increases. Depending on the details, this policy may also provide targeted relief to those affected by last year\u2019s expiration of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/02\/how-democrats-covid-bill-gives-welfare-to-the-wealthy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">enhanced exchange subsidies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Logical Principle<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The White House\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/fact-sheets\/2026\/09\/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-announces-the-working-families-obamacare-refunds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announcement<\/a> and fact sheet indicated that the rebates would come from a surplus of accumulated user fees. The user fees fund exchange operations \u2014 things like IT infrastructure, call centers, and assorted administrative costs \u2014 and get built into the premiums that enrollees pay.<\/p>\n<p>For Obamacare\u2019s first six years, the federal exchange charged a <a href=\"https:\/\/company.getinsured.com\/user-fees-for-healthcare-gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">user fee<\/a> equal to 3.5 percent of every premium dollar. Beginning with the first Trump administration, those fees have declined slightly. But the White House announcement suggests that the federal exchange continues to run an annual surplus. That surplus could stem from several possible factors: increased enrollment spreading fixed costs over a larger number of enrollees; lower IT costs now that the exchange is established; and greater awareness of Obamacare allowing a reduction in outreach efforts.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-to-spend-more-on-defense-against-climate-change-environmental-justice-than-on-port-and-waterway-supply-chain\/\" title=\"Biden Admin To Spend More On \u2018Defense Against Climate Change,\u2019 \u2018Environmental Justice\u2019 Than On Port And Waterway Supply Chain\">fact sheet stated<\/a> that rebates of $500 would go to \u201cnearly 1 million Americans in 30 states.\u201d The rebates will only go to enrollees in states that utilize the federal exchange architecture. Enrollees in (mostly blue) states that run their own exchanges will not qualify, because they never paid the federal user fees to begin with; instead, state-run exchanges enact and implement their own mechanisms to fund their operations.<\/p>\n<p>The reference to \u201cnearly 1 million enrollees\u201d means that the rebates will only go to unsubsidized enrollees in those 30 states. Even after the Biden-era Covid <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/02\/how-democrats-covid-bill-gives-welfare-to-the-wealthy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">enhanced subsidies<\/a> expired last December, the vast majority of exchange enrollees still <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/files\/document\/health-insurance-exchanges-2026-open-enrollment-report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">qualify for federal subsidies<\/a>. Because those subsidies on average pay for the vast majority of subsidized enrollees\u2019 premiums, it makes sense for the rebates to go only to unsubsidized enrollees, rather than giving additional benefits to those who already receive generous subsidies, or the government writing rebate checks to itself.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Some Details Unclear<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While the principle remains sound, the White House fact sheet omitted details and left <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/politics\/articles\/trump-500-obamacare-rebate-checks-195917749.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">key questions unanswered<\/a>. For instance, who will qualify for the rebates \u2014 if someone enrolled in an exchange plan last year, but did not reenroll this year, would they be eligible? What calculations led to the $500 amount?<\/p>\n<p>As a practical matter, it might prove more effective and efficient to further reduce user fees going forward than to go through the process of issuing separate rebates. But the president seems enamored with issuing checks of various sorts, which might explain why this policy was announced during the Republican midterm convention with many important details still missing.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Targeted Relief<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While Congress was right to allow the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/02\/how-democrats-covid-bill-gives-welfare-to-the-wealthy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">enhanced subsidies<\/a> to expire last December, their expiration did affect a discrete group of people. The expiration of the enhanced subsidies means that households with incomes above 400 <a href=\"https:\/\/aspe.hhs.gov\/topics\/poverty-economic-mobility\/poverty-guidelines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">percent of poverty<\/a> (about $64,000 for an individual and $132,000 for a family of four in 2026) no longer qualify for any subsidy. Households earning just above that threshold were most affected by the enhanced subsidies\u2019 expiration, particularly those approaching retirement age, who pay higher premiums than enrollees in their 20s and 30s.<\/p>\n<p>With the federal government now <a href=\"https:\/\/fiscaldata.treasury.gov\/datasets\/debt-to-the-penny\/debt-to-the-penny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$40 trillion in debt<\/a>, Washington couldn\u2019t afford to give families in their 50s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/04\/09\/the-real-reason-obamacare-enrollement-is-down-is-thanks-to-trumps-fraud-crackdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">taxpayer-funded health benefits<\/a> in their early retirement. But returning to these households that portion of the exchange user fees that the federal government never should have collected from them anyway provides a way to soften the blow. Here\u2019s hoping that the administration figures out the remainder of the details and can find a way to bring this proposal to fruition.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump proposes refunds of Obamacare user fees to help offset premium hikes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2663164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Copy-of-Untitled-2026-09-16T175319.929.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[3620,12589,85802,3634],"class_list":["post-2663163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-biden","tag-obamacare","tag-overcharges","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Copy-of-Untitled-2026-09-16T175319.929.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2663163"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2663175,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663163\/revisions\/2663175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2663164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2663163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2663163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2663163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}