Solange Reyner – Wed, September 9, 2026
The Trump administration plans to distribute $500 direct deposits to roughly 1 million people who buy their own health coverage without federal premium subsidies in 30 states ahead of the Nov. 3 elections.
Roughly 1 million people who buy their own health coverage could receive $500 direct deposits from the federal government this fall, under a plan the Trump administration has not publicly announced but that officials described to Axios.
The outlet reported Wednesday that the checks would reach enrollees in 30 states ahead of the Nov. 3 elections. President Donald Trump was expected to preview the plan in his speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas.
At the center of the plan is roughly $500 million sitting in federal accounts — money the White House says was collected in excess from Affordable Care Act coverage during the Biden years and never spent.
“That money was over-collected and just sitting there,” an official told Axios.
Not every enrollee would qualify. The checks are limited to people who buy marketplace coverage without federal premium subsidies, officials said — a slice of the market that absorbs the full cost of a plan.
Thirteen states were singled out as having concentrations of eligible enrollees: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin.
The account has been fought over before. Biden administration officials floated tapping it in 2023 to cover contraception at no cost for people whose marketplace plans excluded it.
Republicans on Capitol Hill pushed back, arguing the fees existed to run the exchanges and that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had no legal authority to spend them on anything else.
The proposal was shelved.
Several of the GOP aides behind that objection later joined the administration, according to the report. After trimming some fees to bring premiums down, officials found a sizable balance still on hand.
“It’s time for Congress to pass President Trump’s Great Healthcare Plan, which will finally begin prioritizing people instead of insurance company profits by sending billions in taxpayer-funded healthcare dollars directly to Americans to help them better afford health coverage and care,” an official told Axios.
That framing tracks with how Trump has described his broader ambitions for healthcare — moving federal dollars to individuals rather than through insurance companies.
He tried and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act in his first term.
The timing lands two months before elections Republicans enter on defense, with voters unhappy about prices and the war in Iran.
Whether CMS can legally redirect the money remains untested, and the agency has not said so publicly. Axios is so far the only outlet to report the plan, and its account rests on officials who were not named. CMS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The administration describes the balance as overcharges to enrollees. ACA exchange user fees are levied on insurers as a share of premiums, though carriers typically build them into what customers pay.
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