The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the massive levels of fraud that comes with the Advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC), an Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, subsidy to health insurers to lower the monthly health insurance premiums.
Democrats shut down the government for weeks over the looming end-of-year expiration of the Enhanced Premium Tax Credit (EPTC), a more generous version of the APTC that the left-leaning party boosted through the Biden-era, coronavirus stimulus plan, the American Rescue Plan. Democrats continued the subsidies through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which will expire at the end of 2025.
The GAO, as part of its analysis, conducted covert operations, which included fictitious identities that flood insurers with unjustified subsides. It found that 100 percent of the fake applicants were approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as recently as 2024, with 90 percent of the fraudulent applicants continuing to receive coverage in 2025.
Chairman Guthrie, Jordan, and Smith requested the GAO investigation; they said the GAO study reifies Republicans’ concerns about these Obamacare subsidies.
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“Republicans have consistently prioritized protecting patients and taxpayers by ridding our federal health programs of the waste, fraud, and abuse that ultimately drive up costs for patients,” Chairman Guthrie in written statement.
He continued, “Republicans have sounded the alarm on the flawed structural integrity of Obamacare and how Democrats’ failed policies to temporarily prop up the program have exacerbated fraud, hurt patients, increased the burden on American taxpayers, and artificially masked the true health care affordability crisis plaguing Americans today. The concerning findings from GAO’s report further confirm that Republican efforts to strengthen, secure, and sustain our federal health programs are critical and necessary to ensure access to quality health care at prices Americans can afford.”
“For years, we were told we could keep our plan, keep our doctor, and premiums would go down. None of it happened. This new report confirms what we already knew: under Obamacare, hardworking Americans saw their premiums skyrocket and their healthcare choices shrink, all while fraud benefitted insurance companies. Obamacare was built on lies and broken promises that hurt families and drove up costs,” Jordan said in a statement to Breitbart News.
“While Democrats defend waste, fraud, and abuse, Republicans are taking action to lower health care costs and protect care for all real, living Americans. GAO’s troubling report is the smoking gun that shows how this broken system, shielded by Democrat policies, has led to the federal government shoveling tens of billions of tax dollars to insurance companies through identity fraud and caused health care costs to skyrocket for all Americans,” Smith explained.
Prior research from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and other outside organizations have found that millions may be enrolled in Obamacare improperly, resulting in as much as $27 billion in improper payments.
The GAO report found:
- 58,000 Social Security numbers that received the APTC matched Social Security Administration death data
- 7,000 people had Social Security were dead before coverage began, meaning the applications used Social Security numbers of dead people
- $94 million in APTC was sent to health insurers on behalf of deceased people
GAO noted in its report its had frequently warned that Obamacare subsidies are and have been at risk of fraud. Republicans have been sounding the alarm about Obamacare subsidy fraud.
“While Obamacare fraud is being confirmed by GAO, CMS, CBO and other outside reports, patients are suffering. They face higher health care costs and denied claims or delayed care when their providers struggle to verify which insurance is valid due to these fraud schemes. Rather than simply rubber stamp more bad spending and failed policies, we must take action to prevent further harm.”
Meanwhile, Republicans have worked to restore integrity in the American healthcare system. The Big Beautiful Bill stipulates full income and eligibility verification before subsidies are issued, ends “anytime” enrollment abuse that would fuel fraudulent enrollment, and closing loopholes that would allow illegal aliens and other ineligible groups of people to access taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits.
Instead of using Obamacare subsidies that fuel health insurers’ profits, President Donald Trump has called to send federal healthcare dollars straight to the American people so they can use their money according to their healthcare needs.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said in a statement:
It was Democrats who created this shoddy subsidy program with no financial controls, no income cap, and no guardrails against the most blatant fraud, including the approval of subsidies for thousands of dead people.
….
There is absolutely no justification for perpetuating these subsidies or the failed government-controlled Obamacare system Democrats are artificially propping up. Instead, Republicans should continue to implement reforms that lower costs, expand affordable options, and protect American taxpayers.
The president wrote:
I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over.
“In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare,” the president added.
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