Overview
- Covert testing showed 19 of 20 fictitious applications were approved for 2025 coverage, with 18 still active and costing about $10,000 per month in subsidies.
- Preliminary analysis identified more than $21 billion in 2023 premium subsidies without evidence of tax reconciliation, signaling potential overpayments.
- Investigators found about 26,000 Social Security numbers tied to deceased people receiving coverage in 2023, with roughly $94 million paid to insurers for those cases.
- Data pointed to heavy SSN reuse, including one number linked to over 125 policies and more than 26,000 days of subsidized coverage in a single year.
- GAO flagged 30,000 likely unauthorized application changes in 2023 and 160,000 in 2024 by agents or brokers, while noting its review is ongoing and CMS defends some controls such as identity checks and periodic death matches.