President Barrack Obama will forever be remembered for instituting his milestone Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare. It’s a brave attempt at providing coverage for many Americans whom could not receive health insurance prior to its execution. But, the opposition continues at accumulating and enumerating erroneous aspects of the controversial law. As the enrollment period approaches for all Americans, people are highlighting protective mechanisms that are not detecting fraudulence.
Obamacare Exchange Fails To Detect Counterfeit Documents
According to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Obamacare exchanges are failing to verify key enrollment information. GAO tested application and enrollment controls on the federal exchange and two state exchanges (California and Kentucky). Ten fictitious applicants were created to test whether verification steps including validating an applicant’s Social Security number, verifying citizenship, and verifying household income were completed properly.
“For each of the 10 undercover applications where we obtained qualified health-plan coverage, the respective marketplace directed that our applicants submit supplementary documentation… we provided counterfeit follow-up documentation, such as fictitious Social Security cards with impossible Social Security numbers, for all 10 undercover applications.” reports the GAO.
Even though fraudulent or insufficient documentation were submitted, the report cites all ten applications remained enrolled on Obamacare.
“For all 10 of these undercover applications, we maintained subsidized coverage beyond the period during which applicants may file supporting documentation to resolve inconsistencies.”
The ten applicants received a total of $2,300 in tax credits per month as each applicant received the Obamacare cost- sharing reduction and tax credit subsidies.
Here are some nerve-wrecking findings for the year of 2015:
” An August 10, 2015 report by the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS OIG) found that the federal Healthcare.gov is failing to verify applicant’s Social Security numbers, citizenship, and household income in order to properly distribute tax credits.”
” A July 16, 2015 audit released by GAO found that 11 of 12 fictitious applicants received coverage for the entire 2014 coverage period despite many using fraudulent documents, and others providing no documentation at all. From these 11 test applicants alone, erroneously Healthcare.gov paid $30,000 in tax credits.”
“A June 16, 2015 report released by HHS OIG found that $2.8 billion worth of subsidies and payments had been made in 2014 without verification.”
” A May 11, 2015 report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS was failing to verify whether individuals had even bought health insurance before distributing tax credits.”
Obamacare Exchange Fails To Detect Counterfeit Documents
SOURCE: AMERICAN TAX REFORM
