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Affordable Care Act Exchanges Fail To Detect Counterfeit Documentation (atr.org)

Posted by timothy on from the maybe-it's-a-reverse-sting dept.

Tulsa_Time writes with this excerpt of an account from the (unapologetically partisan) Americans for Tax Reform about a report released by the Government Accountability Office in which "application and enrollment controls on the federal exchange and two state exchanges (California and Kentucky)" were investigated by supplying false information; in each case, the investigators were able to obtain and activate health insurance through the exchanges. A slice: Ten fictitious applicants were created to test whether verification steps including validating an applicant's Social Security number, verifying citizenship, and verifying household income were completed properly. In order to test these controls, GAO's test applications provided fraudulent documentation: "For each of the 10 undercover applications where we obtained qualified health-plan coverage, the respective marketplace directed that our applicants submit supplementary documentation we provided counterfeit follow-up documentation, such as fictitious Social Security cards with impossible Social Security numbers, for all 10 undercover applications."

4 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. All entitlement programs are rife with trust/fraud by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Judging by the frequency with which the courts around here have a "Tampering With Gov't Records" case before them, I would venture a guess this sort of lie for profit is universally problematic for assistance programs.

    This is the typical charge for obtaining gov't assistance under many different false pretenses, but typically under-reporting income.

    I, for one, would prefer to keep the trust but verify nature of the programs... the aim is not to catch fraudsters straight away, but to help folks when they need it. Sure, some will game the system, but likely not for an extended period before getting caught with the hand in the cookie jar.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  2. Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    and if you get sick after the budget is spent for the year, too bad.
    If you need treatment they don't want to pay for, too bad.
    If you're on the A-list, you get health care right away, otherwise you wait in queue.
    If you're on the enemies list, the waiting time is until you die.
    If you want to pay a doctor privately to get extra treatment, the medical police arrest you and the doctor.

  3. Re:Bad framing by jedidiah · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I wouldn't copy Canada. I personally know someone that was killed by the Canadian system.

    Also, don't drink the Kool-Aid. There's a big difference between what gets billed and what gets paid. If you think American health care is overpriced, you're probably looking at a bogus inflated number.

    The problem with people trying to turn the US into a European style socialist welfare state is that they don't have any actual experience with those. They just hear a lot of bogus media reports that distort the facts to suit a particular narrative.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  4. Re: Affordable my ass by Bartles · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Replacing insurance companies with the federal government does not cut out the middleman, you idiot.