Oct 8, 2026 · 28 min · 12 segments
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Chris QuinnHost
Leila AtassiPanelistLisa GarvinPanelist
Laura JohnstonPanelist
Lisa, readers were asking, so we published a story Wednesday about the $500 checks Donald Trump has sent to about 70,000 Ohioans, along with a letter trashing Joe Biden yet again.
So these checks, these $500 checks are going out this week, and these are for those 70,000 Ohioans who are on the Affordable Care Act insurance plans.
Trump announced last month th- these refunds, saying it was a refund of Obamacare overcharges that were collected by the Biden administration.
It comes with a letter that says, "This is the money the Democrats hid because they didn't wanna pay it out.
They got caught, and we caught them." And the letter says that it's surplus user fees that insurers pay to run the healthcare.gov.
But the research nonprofit KFF, uh, one of their people, Cynthia Cox, says, well, those fees may have come from the Trump first term when more user fees were collected than spent, and that equaled about a billion dollars, which is going out the door.
Um, so the Center for American Progress, which is a Democratic-aligned think tank, said that these checks amount to less than 5% of ACA enrollees.
He said that it's a temporary limited ploy that won't change costs, and people are actually paying $780 more in premiums this year, and deductibles are about $1,000 higher.
... for certain kinds of things, so at the same time the 500's coming in for some, 90 is coming in for others.
My favorite, uh, response I got from a reader on this [laughs] is they're turning around and donating the $500 to Sherrod Brown's campaign.
And I've seen that all over social media, people saying the very same thing, that they're gonna give it to Democratic candidates-
Lisa, readers were asking, so we published a story Wednesday about the $500 checks Donald Trump has sent to about 70,000 Ohioans, along with a letter trashing Joe Biden yet again.
So these checks, these $500 checks are going out this week, and these are for those 70,000 Ohioans who are on the Affordable Care Act insurance plans.
Trump announced last month th- these refunds, saying it was a refund of Obamacare overcharges that were collected by the Biden administration.
It comes with a letter that says, "This is the money the Democrats hid because they didn't wanna pay it out.
They got caught, and we caught them." And the letter says that it's surplus user fees that insurers pay to run the healthcare.gov.
But the research nonprofit KFF, uh, one of their people, Cynthia Cox, says, well, those fees may have come from the Trump first term when more user fees were collected than spent, and that equaled about a billion dollars, which is going out the door.
Um, so the Center for American Progress, which is a Democratic-aligned think tank, said that these checks amount to less than 5% of ACA enrollees.
He said that it's a temporary limited ploy that won't change costs, and people are actually paying $780 more in premiums this year, and deductibles are about $1,000 higher.
... for certain kinds of things, so at the same time the 500's coming in for some, 90 is coming in for others.
My favorite, uh, response I got from a reader on this [laughs] is they're turning around and donating the $500 to Sherrod Brown's campaign.
And I've seen that all over social media, people saying the very same thing, that they're gonna give it to Democratic candidates-
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