STAT+: Right before midterms, Trump dangles $500 refunds for select ACA enrollees

The Trump administration is promising to send $500 refund checks to nearly 1 million people with Affordable Care Act health plans. The checks are set to be mailed starting next month, just before the midterm elections, to many individuals living in swing states. They will go only to people who do not receive federal subsidies for their insurance plans, leaving out tens of millions of people with ACA coverage.

The White House framed the money as helping "Americans most exposed to the higher costs imposed by the Biden administration's gross mismanagement of Obamacare." But STAT reports the payments instead reflect the Trump administration's own decisions to cut funding that helps people enroll in ACA plans, as well as Republicans' decisions not to extend extra ACA subsidies that expired this year.

It remains unclear what legal authority the administration has to give cash to only some ACA plan holders. The story is a STAT+ exclusive, with the remainder behind a subscriber paywall.