Vance Task Force Purges 760K From Obamacare Rolls

The White House trimmed the Obamacare rolls in high-profile fashion on Tuesday, citing fraud as the reason. Vice President JD Vance's antifraud task force said it was removing about 760,000 enrollments from the Affordable Care Act, alleging that people were receiving improper subsidies or didn't even exist, reports the Wall Street Journal. "We're actually making sure that the people receiving Obamacare subsidies are actually entitled to receive them," Vance said at a news conference, adding that the move would save $2.2 billion. The cuts amount to 4% of the 19 million ACA enrollments.

The New York Times reports that some enrollees have indeed been receiving subsidies they don't qualify for, "either because they innocently [miscalculated] their expected income"— or because a broker coached them to do so to obtain coverage." Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the feds also would be cracking down on brokers who bend the rules. The Times notes that during the Biden administration, about 200 brokers were decertified for signing people up for coverage without their knowledge. Expect more purges: Vance said more than 400,000 additional enrollees were still undergoing scrutiny.