{"id":2674533,"date":"2026-10-02T08:49:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigntrump-admin-cancels-2-2-billion-in-phony-obamacare-enrollments-and-brokers-who-facilitated-them\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T08:53:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:53:44","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigntrump-admin-cancels-2-2-billion-in-phony-obamacare-enrollments-and-brokers-who-facilitated-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigntrump-admin-cancels-2-2-billion-in-phony-obamacare-enrollments-and-brokers-who-facilitated-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Admin Cancels $2.2B In Phony Obamacare Enrollments"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigntrump-admin-cancels-2-2-billion-in-phony-obamacare-enrollments-and-brokers-who-facilitated-them%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2674533&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Trump administration took steps to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in the Obamacare Exchanges by disenrolling individuals who lacked proper documentation, which resulted in the cancellation of about 315,000 unauthorized enrollments covering over 760,000 people and the refund of approximately $2.2 billion in subsidies. Additionally, CMS issued notices to agents and brokers who submitted applications without essential applicant data, leading to some terminations, and imposed a six-month moratorium on new broker registrations to prevent fraud, citing higher rates of questionable enrollment among new agents.<\/p>\n<p>However, these actions have raised questions about timing and effectiveness. An audit revealed that CMS had previously suspended and then reinstated hundreds of agents suspected of misconduct, with ongoing issues of unauthorized enrollments and complaints.Despite recent improvements reported in 2026, the persistence of eligibility fraud remains a concern, highlighted by data showing a meaningful number of fake enrollees receiving subsidies-most notably, 19 out of 20 fictitious enrollees obtained coverage. The article emphasizes the need for continued scrutiny and accountability from Congress to protect taxpayers and ensure integrity in the health insurance programs.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Trump administration\u2019s latest action to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the Obamacare Exchanges entailed disenrolling people from insurance plans \u2014 costing taxpayers billions \u2014 who couldn\u2019t identify themselves with proper documentation. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the kind of move that would prompt ordinary taxpayers in the heartland to ask: <em>Why didn\u2019t they do that sooner?<\/em><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ghost Enrollees<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/newsroom\/fact-sheets\/federal-marketplace-ffe-sbe-fp-anti-fraud-actions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fact sheet<\/a>, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it had \u201ccanceled approximately 315,000 enrollments covering over 760,000 individuals after confirmation that these enrollments were unauthorized.\u201d The action, taken after investigations in coordination with insurance companies, will result in approximately $2.2 billion in Obamacare subsidies being refunded to the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, CMS announced it had sent \u201c569 notices of intent to terminate Exchange Agreements to agents and brokers that submitted 2026 applications [for coverage] without identifying applicant information, such as a Social Security number.\u201d It said 66 of those agents and brokers had already been terminated, and more will likely follow as CMS receives responses from the relevant parties.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Questionable Enrollment Persists<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>CMS also published an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2026\/09\/23\/2026-19493\/patient-protection-and-affordable-care-act-temporary-moratoria-on-certain-agent-and-broker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-you-need-to-know-about-trumps-latest-drug-pricing-moves\/\" title=\"What You Need To Know About Trump...s Latest Drug Pricing Moves\">interim final rule<\/a><\/a> (i.e., one taking effect immediately) imposing a six-month moratorium on the new registration of brokers and agents, allowing CMS to implement another round of program integrity measures to guard against fraud by agents and brokers. (The moratorium will not apply in states that run their own Exchanges, which set their own rules regarding insurance brokers.) The move caused some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/other\/us-says-it-canceled-obamacare-policies-for-760-000-people-last-month\/ar-AA2cKYnE?ocid=msedgntp&#038;pc=DCTS&#038;cvid=6ab2aa2018a541fe8c9c65508e0bf45a&#038;ei=25\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pushback<\/a> from the broker community, which said this punishes the innocent with the guilty since no new broker will be able to register until next February, after the open enrollment period for 2027.<\/p>\n<p>In response, CMS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/newsroom\/fact-sheets\/federal-marketplace-ffe-sbe-fp-anti-fraud-actions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cited data<\/a> indicating that new agents for the current (i.e., 2026) plan year had significantly higher rates of questionable enrollment \u2014 for instance, a 2.8-time higher rate of \u201cunresolved income verification issues,\u201d a 2.7-time higher rate of \u201cmissing Social Security numbers,\u201d a 2.6-time higher rate of \u201cunresolved citizenship or <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >immigration status verification issues<\/a>,\u201d and a 1.4-time higher rate of dual enrollment in Exchange coverage and Medicaid. To CMS, these data points suggest that new brokers may be disproportionately seeking to enroll ineligible individuals primarily for the commissions, and justified the registration moratorium as a preventive measure.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Prior Government Audit<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While taking action to prevent fraud is always welcome, did these particular steps come too late? CMS\u2019s latest announcement raises questions about when and why brokers are being terminated or reinstated.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/gao-26-108742.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">audit<\/a> released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last December addressed this issue. It noted that, in October 2024, CMS \u201csuspended 850 agents and brokers from the federal Marketplace [i.e., Exchange] for reasonable suspicion of fraudulent or abusive conduct related to unauthorized enrollments or unauthorized plan switches. However, in May 2025, CMS officials told us that the agency reinstated all these suspended agents and brokers to better fulfill the agency\u2019s statutory and regulatory procedures.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>It isn\u2019t clear why CMS reinstated the brokers last May and whether any of the reinstated brokers were among those who received new termination notices over the summer. But the reinstatements came at a time when the federal government continued to struggle with program integrity efforts.<\/p>\n<p>The recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2026\/09\/23\/2026-19493\/patient-protection-and-affordable-care-act-temporary-moratoria-on-certain-agent-and-broker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interim final rule<\/a> noted that in 2025, CMS received approximately 300,000 \u201ccomplaints attesting to unauthorized enrollments or unauthorized plan switching.\u201d A separate GAO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/gao-26-108297.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a>, released in July, disclosed a total of 299,604 such complaints last year \u2014 an increase from 258,424 in 2024. Thankfully, CMS said in the interim final rule that these trends have reversed in 2026. But given the persistence of eligibility fraud through 2025, CMS should make its reasoning behind last year\u2019s broker reinstatements and this year\u2019s subsequent terminations clear \u2014 and if it doesn\u2019t, Congress should ask those questions on behalf of the American people.<\/p>\n<p>As last year\u2019s GAO report noted, a total of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/12\/08\/report-obamacare-exchange-kept-9-out-of-10-fake-enrollees-on-subsidized-coverage\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">19 of 20 fictitious enrollees<\/a> were able to obtain subsidized coverage from the federal Exchange. Taxpayers should find that unacceptable, and most ordinary Americans would, regardless of political party. It\u2019s why Washington should continue digging into fraud and demanding accountability. We the people deserve no less.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump admin\u2019s move to cut fraud in Obamacare plans raises questions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2674534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Person-Writing-with-Stethoscope.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[86599,62599,63701,12589,32640],"class_list":["post-2674533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-enrollment-scandal","tag-federal-oversight","tag-healthcare-fraud","tag-obamacare","tag-trump-administration"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Person-Writing-with-Stethoscope.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2674533"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2674537,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674533\/revisions\/2674537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2674534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2674533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2674533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2674533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}