1 Trending: Sen. Grassley Vindicated Thrice-Fold On Alleged Scheme To Hinder Biden Family Investigation

2 Trending: Sports Media Find Arch Manning’s AI Humor More Offensive Than Players Beating Women

3 Trending: The Baby-Purchasing Business Continues To Be An Unmitigated Disaster For Everyone Involved

4 Trending: DOJ Goes After Berkeley Law For Discrimination Against White Applicants

Trump Admin To Pay Americans Back For Biden’s Obamacare Overcharges

The rebates will only go to unsubsidized enrollees in 30 states.

Share Article on Facebook

Share Article on Twitter

Share Article on Truth Social

Share Article via Email

The Trump administration recently announced a proposal to issue payments to individuals that makes a good deal of policy sense. No, I don’t mean the proposal for $5,000 rebate checks, which has myriad policy and political flaws.

But refunding excess user fees 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’s expiration of enhanced exchange subsidies.

The White House’s announcement and fact sheet indicated that the rebates would come from a surplus of accumulated user fees. The user fees fund exchange operations — things like IT infrastructure, call centers, and assorted administrative costs — and get built into the premiums that enrollees pay.

For Obamacare’s first six years, the federal exchange charged a user fee 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........

© The Federalist