The Trump administration is preparing to send $500 payments to as many as 1 million Americans who purchase their own health insurance, using approximately $500 million in Affordable Care Act funds that officials say were collected in excess during the Biden administration and remained unused. The still-unannounced plan would distribute the money this fall, ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, according to a report by Axios.

The payments would reportedly be sent to eligible Obamacare enrollees across 30 states. President Donald Trump was expected to discuss the initiative during his appearance at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas.

The proposal centers on roughly half a billion dollars currently held in federal accounts. Trump administration officials contend that the money resulted from excess collections connected to Affordable Care Act coverage during the Biden years.

“That money was over-collected and just sitting there,” an official told Axios.

Eligibility would not extend to everyone enrolled through the ACA marketplaces. According to officials, the $500 payments would go specifically to people who purchase marketplace insurance without receiving federal subsidies toward their premiums, meaning they pay the entire premium themselves.

Officials identified 13 states as having particularly significant numbers of people who could qualify: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin.

The pool of federal money at issue has previously been the subject of a dispute in Washington. During the Biden administration, officials considered using the funds in 2023 to provide contraception without charge to people whose marketplace insurance plans did not cover it.

Republicans in Congress objected to that proposed use of the money. They maintained that the fees had been collected to finance the operation of the ACA exchanges and argued that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services lacked legal authority to redirect them for a different purpose.

The Biden administration ultimately abandoned that proposal.

According to Axios, several Republican aides who had participated in challenging the earlier proposal subsequently took positions in the Trump administration. Officials later reduced some fees in an effort to lower premiums and determined that a substantial amount of money nevertheless remained available.

“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.

The proposed rebates fit with Trump’s broader approach to healthcare funding, in which he has advocated directing federal healthcare dollars to individuals rather than channeling the money through insurance companies.

Trump sought unsuccessfully to repeal the Affordable Care Act during his first term in the White House.

The planned payments are emerging less than two months before the midterm elections, as healthcare affordability and other household costs remain significant political issues. ACA premiums are also facing another year of substantial increases, with a recent analysis finding a median proposed increase of 14% for next year.

Questions remain about whether CMS has the legal authority to distribute the money in the manner being contemplated. The agency had not publicly announced the program as of Wednesday, and its newsroom did not list an announcement of the reported rebate plan.

Axios was the first outlet to report details of the proposal, citing unnamed administration officials. CMS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Administration officials characterize the approximately $500 million as money that was effectively over-collected from Obamacare enrollees. ACA marketplace user fees are technically charged to insurers as a percentage of premiums, although insurance companies generally incorporate those expenses into the premiums ultimately paid by consumers.