“We’re gonna put down you make $18,000. You win, I win, and the insurance company wins! – Insurance Broker
By Brian Blase
SOURCE: The $20 Billion ObamaCare Subsidy Fraud
The Biden administration has made ObamaCare even more wasteful than it already was. A new Paragon analysis estimates that five million enrollees are receiving health-insurance subsidies well above the amounts to which they are legally entitled. The subsidy amount is largely determined by income, so that brokers and insurers alike financially benefit if applicants misstate their incomes. The administration, seeking to inflate coverage numbers, has prioritized enrollment over the program’s integrity. That has fostered fraudulent spending, which we estimate at $20 billion in 2024.
In August 2022, President Biden signed legislation increasing subsidies through 2025. In states that haven’t adopted ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, taxpayers pay the entire plan premium for enrollees with income between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level. ObamaCare bars federal assistance to people with incomes below the poverty line who live in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid.
That creates an incentive to submit applications estimating income between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level. Such misestimates of income, whether intentional or accidental, cost taxpayers thousands of dollars per enrollee. The average annual subsidy for this income group is about $6,000 per adult.
The full article can be found in The Wall Street Journal.
