FRAUD: Watchdog Discovers Almost $100 Million in Obamacare Subsidies Were Paid for Dead People
Obamacare subsidies are a tangled web of fraud, according to a new report from the General Accounting Office.
The report said insurance companies collected $94 million for people who were dead, one piece of what the Congressional Budget Office estimates to be $27 billion in annual Obamacare fraud, according to the National Pulse.
The GAO report said 58,000 Social Security numbers linked to advanced premium tax credits matched numbers in the Social Security death data. More than 7,000 individuals were found to have died before their coverage even began.
In one case, one Social Security number was used to receive 125 insurance policies covering 26,000 days — the equivalent of 71 years of coverage.
A GAO investigation revealed massive fraud in Obamacare: approving fake applicants, subsidizing dead enrollees, and one social security number with more than 125 different insurance policies tied to it.
It’s a broken, fraudulent system — and Americans deserve real solutions to… pic.twitter.com/JQnuBD3iAX
— Rep. Jason Smith (@RepJasonSmith) December 5, 2025
“While Democrats defend waste, fraud, and abuse, Republicans are taking action to lower health care costs and protect care for all real, living Americans,” Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri said.
“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,” he said.
The GAO found it was easy to beat the system, as noted by the New York Post.
The GAO said that it tested scrutiny on applications by filing fake applications for the subsidy that was at the heart of the recent federal government shutdown.
MASSIVE OBAMACARE FRAUD found after GAO investigation.
Investigations show that fake applicants were being approved, how ONE Social Security number had over 125 different policies attached to it, subsidizing over 59,000 dead enrollees, which means insurance companies were STILL… pic.twitter.com/rlf6iqrwxk
— The SCIF (@TheSCIF) December 5, 2025
In the 2024 plan year, the GAO sent in four fake applicants, and all were approved without “documentation to support Social Security numbers (SSN), citizenship, and reported income,” the report said.
Twenty fake applications were filed in plan year 2025; 18 “remain actively covered as of September 2025,” the GAO wrote.
In 2024, 66,000 Social Security numbers were linked to more than a year’s worth of subsidies.
Republican Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas called the report a “bombshell,” according to Politico.
He said the report showed “there is absolutely no justification for perpetuating these subsidies or the failed government-controlled Obamacare system Democrats are artificially propping up.”
Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho said the GAO findings “further illustrate the brokenness of Obamacare,” according to a release on the website of the Senate Finance Committee.
“The temporary, enhanced COVID-era credits have exacerbated Obamacare’s structural failures, causing fraud to explode and leaving taxpayers to subsidize criminals and shady insurance brokers. Premiums and out-of-pocket costs are rising for all Americans, but as we look for ways to improve the health care system, this investigation serves as a stark reminder that we cannot simply throw good money after bad policy,” he said.
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