WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) expressed outrage over the latest Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) complete lack of fraud prevention capability. Amid earnest proclamations by President Obama that the ACA is “working exactly as it's supposed to,” the GAO report reveals the sad reality of this destructive law.
In 2014, GAO began a “secret shopper” investigation designed to test whether or not the federal healthcare exchange (Marketplace) was able to detect and prevent falsified applications from being accepted. The results were glaring. Of the 12 fictitious identities that applied for taxpayer subsidies, 11 were approved, which is a 91 percent failure rate. Over the course of 2014, the government paid out $30,000 to these fake individuals. Investigators were able to obtain subsidies even though they provided false proof of income, documentation of citizenship, and Social Security numbers. The Marketplace made zero effort to validate any information.
On July 15, 2015 GAO released a report to update and expand on the “applicants.” Every one of the 11 was re-enrolled in 2015 for another year. Six of the 11 were terminated, but only because they failed to submit a new application. GAO investigators simply called the Marketplace, and five of the six cancelled applicants were reinstated, with even higher premium subsidies than they had in 2014.
The ACA has been dogged by similar issues ranging from incorrect federal subsidy calculations to the fiscal calamity facing nearly half of the state based exchanges.
“More ObamaCare waste. How shocking,” exclaimed CAGW President Tom Schatz. “The fact that there is still no system in place to prevent this type of rampant fraud is evidence that this law is not working. This damning report is further justification that this flawed law should be completely overhauled and replaced.”
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.
