Obamacare subsidies granted without documentation to 90% of fake accounts set up by government watchdog

Affordable Care Act subsidies have been granted, without the required documentation, to 90% of fictitious applicants over the last two years, according to a damning government watchdog report released Wednesday. 

The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) preliminary findings of ongoing and covert testing of Obamacare found “fraud risks” in the federal ACA marketplace, specifically related to the healthcare program’s advance premium tax credit – a subsidy Democrats shut down the government over last month in a failed effort to extend the tax credit for three more years. 

“The federal Marketplace approved coverage for nearly all of GAO’s fictitious applicants in plan years 2024 and 2025, generally consistent with similar GAO testing in plan years 2014 through 2016,” according to the government watchdog. 

In plan year 2024, all four of GAO’s fake applicants received coverage with lower monthly premiums – thanks to $2,350 per month in Obamacare subsidies granted to insurers – despite not submitting “documentation to support Social Security numbers (SSN), citizenship, and reported income.”

The GAO upped the number of fake applicants to 20 in plan year 2025 and 18 still “remain actively covered as of September 2025.” 

The subsidies that the 18 fake enrollees were approved for totaled “over $10,000 per month.” 

Evidence of potential “misuse” of Social Security numbers, including dead people receiving coverage, was also discovered by the GAO. 

In plan year 2023 alone, one Social Security number was used to receive subsidized insurance coverage “for over 26,000 days (over 71 years of coverage) across over 125 insurance policies.” 

In 2024, 66,000 Social Security numbers were linked to more than a years’ worth of subsidized coverage.

GAO also compared Social Security numbers of the deceased to those that received tax credits and in 2023 and identified over 58,000 matches, including at least 7,000 people who died before coverage began.  

The report explained that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the federal marketplace for Obamacare, doesn’t bar a Social Security number already used for an enrollment to be used again – in order to allow people to get coverage in instances where identity theft takes place. 

Top Republican lawmakers described the report as the “smoking gun” proving their claims that Obamacare is “broken.” 

“GAO’s troubling report is the smoking gun that shows how this broken system, shielded by Democrat policies, has led to the federal government shoveling tens of billions of tax dollars to insurance companies through identity fraud and caused health care costs to skyrocket for all Americans,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said in a statement. 

The GAO investigation was requested by Smith along with Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

“Republicans have sounded the alarm on the flawed structural integrity of Obamacare and how Democrats’ failed policies to temporarily prop up the program have exacerbated fraud, hurt patients, increased the burden on American taxpayers, and artificially masked the true health care affordability crisis plaguing Americans today,” Guthrie said in a statement.

“The concerning findings from GAO’s report further confirm that Republican efforts to strengthen, secure, and sustain our federal health programs are critical and necessary to ensure access to quality health care at prices Americans can afford.”

Jordan said the report “confirms what we already knew: under Obamacare, hardworking Americans saw their premiums skyrocket and their healthcare choices shrink, all while fraud benefitted insurance companies.”

“Obamacare was built on lies and broken promises that hurt families and drove up costs,” the Ohio Republican added. 

As part of deal Senate Democrats struck with Senate Majority John Thune (R-SD) last month to reopen the government, the upper chamber is expected to take up a vote on extending the pandemic-era ACA tax credit, which is currently set to expire at the end of the year.