LDN Health - Trump administration to remove 760,000 Affordable Care Act enrollees over fraud claims

Trump administration to remove 760,000 Affordable Care Act enrollees over fraud claims

[September 23, 2026] By FATIMA HUSSEIN and MICHELLE L. PRICE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance and other Trump administration officials said Tuesday they plan to remove 760,000 Affordable Care Act enrollees from public healthcare exchanges, alleging that the individuals were fraudulently enrolled in the program, or simply do not exist.

Vance said the discovery and canceled subsidy payments for hundreds of thousands of people from the exchanges, part of an administration-wide crackdown on fraud, would result in $2.2 billion in cost savings.

“We’re actually making sure that the people receiving Obamacare subsidies are actually entitled to receive them,” said Vance, who leads a government task force to eliminate fraud. He was flanked by Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, and other administration officials.

Vance said the cancellation of approximately 315,000 enrollments covering 760,000 people was done in part because the government was not checking whether people enrolled were eligible. Vance said another 419,000 enrollments will get additional verification to make sure they are eligible for the benefit.

The Trump administration also announced a six-month suspension on new agents or brokers who sign up enrollees for healthcare coverage, who officials say commit a disproportionate amount of the fraud they uncovered.

Roughly 19.2 million Americans are actively enrolled in ACA marketplace health plans as of early 2026, according to the Department of Health and Human Services website. The number of enrollees grew during the COVID-19 pandemic when enhanced subsidies became available through the American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act, both signed into law by former President Joe Biden.

Tuesday's announcement is the latest in an initiative by the Trump administration to address fraud around the country, including in federal healthcare programs, which officials say is needed to rein in runaway spending and protect taxpayers.

Some healthcare policy experts are calling for more transparency on how the Trump administration decided to cut hundreds of thousands of enrollees — and question how many people may have been wrongly cut from the program.

Cynthia Cox, a vice president and director of the ACA program at the healthcare research nonprofit KFF, said “I think there’s no question that somebody who was fraudulently enrolled should have their coverage canceled,” however, “I think the question is whether this was the appropriate process by which to identify fraudulent enrollees, and also whether all of them were indeed fraudulently enrolled.”

Cox said the elimination of the people from ACA programs was done outside of the normal regulatory process.

Ellen Montz, a former deputy administrator and director at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at CMS during the Biden administration said during her time in government, there was an ongoing effort to eliminate fraud from ACA programs.

[to top of second column]

Vice President JD Vance arrives for a news conference, followed by Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

“There’s a lot of work to be done, and the Trump administration has done some good things that are targeting the actual fraudsters,” she said. Adding that Tuesday's announcement lacked details on how the administration determined who to cut. “ I would imagine we’ll hear from some subset of consumers that ask: why did my enrollment get cancelled?" Montz said.

At the press conference, Tuesday, Vance referred to some enrollments lacking social security numbers or immigration documentation.

The announcement comes as stubbornly high inflation and rising healthcare costs pressure the Trump administration to come up with a plan to bring down costs for Americans as affordability remains a central issue in the fall midterm elections.

The price of ACA insurance has skyrocketed for many Americans during Trump’s second term, after Republicans opposed extending COVID-era subsidies that had helped offset the costs of health insurance for most enrollees during Biden’s term.

Premiums doubled or tripled for many enrollees, prompting millions to downgrade their plans or exit the program entirely after the Republican-led Congress allowed the subsidies to expire this year.

The Government Accountability Office suggests fraud risks in the advance premium tax credit do exist - however it's unclear at what scale. The GAO conducted covert testing using fictitious ACA applicants enrolled in 2024 and 2025. A report released in December showed that the federal marketplace approved subsidized coverage for almost all of the GAO’s 24 fake enrollees.

The White House referred The Associated Press to the Vice President’s team for additional comment on bigger plans to address healthcare affordability. The Vice President's office and CMS did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news of the Trump administration’s plan to remove ACA enrollees from public exchanges.

Democratic lawmakers criticized the move to remove enrollees from ACA coverage.

Richard E. Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat and ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, said “Republicans have already created the worst healthcare crisis ever, but every decision by the Trump Administration is designed to keep making it worse."

“As if making coverage harder to access through skyrocketing premiums and more red tape wasn’t painful enough, they’re doubling down to take it away entirely,” Neal said.

Back to top