Vance, Oz probe cuts off subsidies to thousands of Obamacare enrollees - USA Today
About 760,000 enrollees will be kicked off the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges as part of a review by federal health officials and Vice President JD Vance's anti-fraud task force.
Vance and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz on Sept. 22 announced subsidy payments will be canceled for these ACA signups they claim were fraudulent, improper or, in some cases, done with phantom enrollees.
Oz said the ACA signup purge involved individuals that often never filed a claim for a doctor's visit, filled a prescription or responded to queries from government fraud investigators. Oz said officials are investigating another 400,000-plus ACA signups they suspect might be fraudulent.
Vance estimated that removing the ACA enrollees would save the federal government about $2.2 billion.
In addition to canceling subsidy payments, Oz announced a six-month moratorium on new brokers who sell ACA plans. The moratorium won't apply to existing brokers who help consumers sign up for ACA plans, also known as Obamacare.
"There will be no new brokers for Obamacare in this country for the next six months," Oz said. "Most of the fraud, a disproportionate amount of fraud, is taking place from these individuals."
CMS officials said the fraudulent signups often are arranged by brokers for people who were unaware they were enrolled in an ACA plan.
Since January, CMS has terminated more than 200 "non-compliant" agents and brokers that market ACA plans. The agency also sent more than 500 "intent-to-terminate" notices this summer to brokers who submitted ACA applications missing information such as consumers' Social Security numbers.
In other cases, people weren't eligible for subsidies because they had access to employer health insurance or earned too much income to qualify. ACA plans offer sliding-scale subsidies to people who earn up to four times the federal poverty level, which is $63,840 for an individual or $132,000 for a family of four in 2026. Those who earn more than four times the federal poverty level can enroll in an ACA plan but won't be eligible for subsidies.
In June, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that about 19.2 million people were enrolled in an ACA plan as of February, down from 23.1 million who signed up for coverage by January 2026. About 24.2 million signed up in January 2025.
When Congress didn't extend enhanced subsidies that expired at the end of 2025, average costs for ACA enrollees who wanted to keep their insurance plans soared 114% in 2026, according to KFF, a health policy nonprofit.
Brian Blase, a White House adviser during the President Donald Trump's first term, runs the conservative think tank Paragon Health Institute that issued reports on brokers orchestrating phantom Obamacare signups.
He said the crackdown on enrollment fraud is welcome news for taxpayers. He said brokers "earned massive commissions by manipulating applications and enrolling people without their knowledge."
"The Trump administration's actions to suspend brokers engaged in these activities and disenroll phantoms is welcome and will save taxpayers billions of dollars each year," Blase said.
Health insurance industry representatives said they supported enrollment safeguards such as multi-factor authentication to verify a consumer's identity and bolstering eligibility checks as consumers move between ACA coverage and Medicaid, the state-federal health program for low-income families and people with disabilities.
"No amount of fraud is ever acceptable," said Chris Bond, spokesman for AHIP, a health insurance industry group. "Health plans continue to support strong program integrity measures to safeguard consumers and taxpayers while ensuring millions of eligible Americans can access affordable coverage options through the individual market."
