WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has removed 750,000 people from the federal Obamacare exchange after flagging their coverage as potentially fraudulent, a move officials say could save taxpayers about $2.2 billion. Vice President JD Vance announced the action Tuesday, adding that another 450,000 enrollments remain under review.
The cancellations affect about 3% of the 23 million people enrolled this year in the federal health insurance subsidy program and could signal additional scrutiny of Obamacare enrollment records.
“We are stopping Obamacare enrollment for about 750,000 people who we believe are fraudulently enrolled in the program,” Vance said during an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the White House.
Vance said officials believe some of those individuals may not realize they were signed up, may never have used their coverage or may not know the plan exists. In other cases, he said, the records could involve “phantom people.”
As head of the administration’s anti-fraud task force, Vance argued that some people may have been enrolled without their consent. He also raised the possibility that certain names represent people who do not exist and were created solely to improperly obtain taxpayer-funded benefits.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced a separate six-month pause on new Obamacare enrollments handled by insurance brokers and agents. During the presentation, Oz displayed a photo of a convicted fraudster and described him as having a “punchable face.”
“Fraud will destroy Obamacare. You cannot run an insurance business if you have no idea who’s coming in,” Oz said. He insisted officials were confident they had identified the appropriate names for removal from the enrollment rolls.
Oz said the agency had made repeated efforts to contact the affected enrollees through letters, electronic messages and deliveries, but received no response. He added that none of the individuals had ever submitted a claim.
“So it meets all the criteria for us, as much as any government can say, ‘You actually don’t know you have this or you don’t exist,’” Oz said.
The remaining 450,000 people under examination presented cases that did not completely match what officials considered a clear-cut fraud pattern, Oz said.
Those enrollees will have additional time to verify their identities, provide valid Social Security numbers and demonstrate that they previously held the insurance coverage in question.
The administration has already taken other steps targeting suspected fraud in federal health programs. Vance previously announced that low-income Medicaid reimbursements would be withheld from states for certain programs considered particularly vulnerable, while the administration also paused enrollment of durable medical equipment providers in Medicare and suspended 447 alleged hospice providers in California.
President Trump has pledged to dismantle Obamacare if Republicans maintain control of Congress after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas this month, Trump promoted what he called a “great healthcare plan” centered on ending government payments to major insurance companies. He accused insurers of controlling Democrats and said the money should instead go directly to individuals, allowing them to purchase their own health coverage.
