Imagine you’re paying your neighbor’s bills—except your “neighbor” doesn’t exist, is possibly dead, or, better yet, never lived in the country to begin with. That’s basically what the federal government has been doing with your tax dollars under Obamacare. According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance marketplace has become a fraudster’s playground—and the referees at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are apparently on a lunch break that’s lasted about a decade.
Let’s break down the absurdity. GAO investigators created fake people—no real Social Security numbers, no legitimate proof of citizenship, just good old-fashioned make-believe. Then they applied for subsidized health insurance under Obamacare. And guess what? They were approved. Not once. Not twice. Every single time. Even when they submitted obviously fake documents or, in some cases, no documents at all. The bureaucracy swallowed it whole.
By late 2024, these phantom applicants were still getting taxpayer-funded plans. In fact, 90 percent of these imaginary enrollees are still receiving coverage in 2025. That’s not a leak in the boat—that’s a full-on hole in the hull.
Now for the kicker. One Social Security number was used to apply for 125 different insurance policies. That’s 71 years’ worth of health coverage for one ID. Elvis could come back from the grave and get a colonoscopy on your dime. Don’t believe it? Over 58,000 Social Security numbers receiving these subsidies matched Social Security death records. Translation: we’re paying to cover ghosts.
Let’s put a number on this mess. $94 million in subsidies were sent to insurers on behalf of dead people. That’s not a rounding error—that’s a systemic failure. And who’s cashing in? Not the patients. Not the taxpayers. No, the real winners here are the big insurance companies, raking in money for “customers” who don’t exist.
Of course, Democrats have spent years defending this bloated monstrosity. Remember when they said you could keep your doctor? Keep your plan? That premiums would go down? Yeah, none of that happened. But fraud? That sure did. And plenty of it.
Congressman Jason Smith hit the nail on the head: “While Democrats defend waste, fraud, and abuse, Republicans are taking action to lower health care costs and protect care for all real, living Americans.” Radical idea, right? Only provide benefits to people who actually exist.
Fortunately, Republicans are already pushing fixes through the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. It includes real reforms like verifying eligibility before subsidies go out the door, ending open enrollment abuse, and closing the loopholes that let illegal immigrants and fraudsters siphon money from the system. The Congressional Budget Office estimates these reforms have already saved taxpayers $185 billion. And that’s before we even stop paying for the dead.
This isn’t just about government waste—it’s about who the system is designed to serve. Under Obamacare, it wasn’t you. It was the bureaucrats, the insurers, and anyone clever enough to game a system built on blind trust and zero accountability.
Maybe it’s time we ask why Democrats are so eager to protect a program that can’t even tell the difference between a real person and a made-up name with a fake ID. Or maybe we already know the answer.
When fraud becomes policy, who’s really in charge?