Trump $5,000 Checks and $500 ACA Rebates: What to Know
President Trump is talking a lot lately about sending checks to American taxpayers.
As the 2026 midterm elections approach, President Donald Trump is promising Americans money directly from the federal government. So far, that includes a recent proposed $5,000 “dividend” for adults and $500 rebates for certain Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollees.
Understandably, the promises are causing confusion about where the money is coming from, how certain the payments might be, and who may be in line to receive the funds.
So far, the administration has indicated that the ACA rebates are expected to begin in October.
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The $5,000 dividend remains a campaign promise that would require congressional action and could cost more than $1 trillion. Here's more to know.
Trump's $5,000 dividend checks
Trump announced his latest payment proposal at a Republican midterm convention in Dallas, telling the crowd: “A dividend of at least $5,000 a person, not including high-income people, will be paid to almost everybody.”
Trump said the money would come primarily from tariff revenue and that the payments would be made if Republicans retain control of Congress in November.
With roughly 260 million adult Americans, $5,000 payments would cost about $1.3 trillion, not including administrative costs or any income-based exclusions.
Vice President JD Vance has since suggested that higher-income Americans wouldn't receive the money.
Trump has pointed to tariff revenue as a source for the dividend, but the available numbers don't come close to matching the potential cost.
- The federal government reportedly collected about $264 billion in customs duties in the most recent fiscal year, according to reporting on the administration's tariff receipts.
- That's far below the potential $1.3 trillion price tag.
Another complication: The administration is now refunding some of the tariff money it collected.
As Kiplinger has reported, the United States Supreme Court's February ruling against Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose broad tariffs has resulted in a massive refund process, with roughly $100 billion already paid out by the end of July. That means tariff revenue isn't necessarily a pot of available funds the administration can count on for future checks.
The promise also comes as the national debt has surpassed $39 trillion, making the math behind a $1 trillion-plus payout even more difficult.
The newly promised dividend would require Congress to approve the necessary legislation and funding. Trump hasn't provided a plan showing how the government would finance payments of that size. And the idea, which reportedly caught many even in his own party off guard, is already receiving blowback.
Also worth noting: The latest $5,000 Trump proposal follows two earlier similar ideas that never materialized: Trump's proposal for $2,000 tariff rebate checks and his DOGE dividend, which was supposed to return a portion of government savings to taxpayers.
$500 ACA rebate checks?
The ACA payments Trump announced on October 10 are different.
In an online video message, Trump announced that nearly 1 million ACA enrollees would receive $500 refunds. “Nearly one million hardworking Americans in 30 states will soon be getting refunds of $500 each, with a check sent to their home address,” Trump said.
The Trump administration says that nearly 1 million people in 30 states will receive refunds beginning September 30, with the money coming from excess user fees paid by insurers that sell plans through HealthCare.gov.
(Those fees help pay for the federal exchange, including the website, call center, and enrollment assistance programs.)
- Insurers incorporate the fees into premiums, so consumers generally don't see a separate “user fee” on their bills.
- For 2025, the fee was 1.5% of premiums; for 2026, it was increased to 2.5%.
- The Biden administration set both rates roughly a year in advance, anticipating higher costs and lower enrollment after the enhanced ACA subsidies expired.
Trump says those fees were "massively overcharged" and that consumers should be refunded. But the explanation seems to be more nuanced.
Cynthia Cox, Kaiser Family Foundation's senior vice president and director of the Program on the ACA, told Reuters that the surplus doesn't necessarily mean consumers were overcharged. She said it also reflects the Trump administration's decision to reduce spending on programs like enrollment assistance while continuing to collect the fee. Cox added that she didn't know of any precedent for returning excess user fees directly to consumers.
Who gets $500?
The administration says payments will go to certain people who purchased coverage through the federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov, and did not receive premium assistance.
According to the White House, most recipients have incomes around 400% of the federal poverty level — about $64,000 for an individual or $132,000 for a family of four.
- Some people with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level also qualify.
- The administration says it has already identified eligible recipients, so they don't need to apply.
- According to the White House, the program applies to people in the 30 states that use HealthCare.gov rather than operating their own ACA marketplaces.
Those states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
The first payments are going out Sept. 30, although recipients shouldn't necessarily expect the money to arrive that same day. More than 950,000 people are expected to receive $500 each.
Recipients will also reportedly receive a letter signed by Trump explaining the payment.
However, it's unclear how the administration will deliver these payments. The Trump administration has referred to them as “refund checks,” but it has not specified whether recipients will receive paper checks or electronic payments. Treasury generally requires federal payments to be made electronically, with limited exceptions for paper checks.
ACA premiums 2027
The timing of both the $500 rebate and the $5,000 dividend announcement is interesting. First, the upcoming November midterm elections and the fact that millions of ACA enrollees already face higher health insurance costs, with open enrollment season just around the corner.
The enhanced ACA premium tax credits, made available by legislation passed during the pandemic, expired at the end of last year after the Republican-led Congress didn't extend them.
The Kaiser Family Foundation found that the average monthly premium payment for Marketplace enrollees rose 58% in 2026, from $113 to $178, including people who did not receive premium tax credits.
Against that backdrop, if the administration has the legal authority to issue them, a one-time $500 rebate might potentially help some consumers. But it wouldn't address the broader increase in the cost of maintaining ACA coverage.
Meanwhile, some see Trump's announcement at the midterm Republican convention as a way to win votes in an upcoming election in which Democrats are widely expected to take back at least one chamber of Congress. Right now, the GOP controls the White House, the U.S. Senate, and the House of Representatives.
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