Trump Admin Says It Uncovered $10 Billion Obamacare Fraud Scheme

The Trump administration says it has uncovered what it describes as a massive fraud scheme within the Affordable Care Act.

Members of Trump’s administration allege that roughly $10 billion in taxpayer money was improperly paid out between 2021 and 2024 because of weakened enrollment safeguards under former President Joe Biden.

According to a Department of Health and Human Services report, officials have already removed nearly three million fraudulent or improper Obamacare enrollments and estimate another 2.6 million questionable enrollments remain.

Administration officials say the findings are part of a broader government-wide effort to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse across federal programs.

The report traces the alleged problems to changes made during the Biden administration that expanded enrollment opportunities while relaxing income verification and eligibility checks.

At the start of Biden’s presidency, approximately 10 million people were enrolled through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. By 2024, enrollment had surged to roughly 22 million.

Federal investigators now believe millions of those enrollments were improper, fraudulent, or created without the knowledge of the individuals involved.

“By our estimate, improper, phantom, and fraudulent enrollment peaked at 5.6 million people in 2025,” the report states.

“We estimate 2.6 million improper and phantom enrollments remain, including over 1 million enrollments without a Social Security number.”

According to the report, several different forms of abuse contributed to the alleged fraud.

Officials say some applicants intentionally understated their income to qualify for larger taxpayer-funded subsidies.

Others allegedly received premium assistance despite failing to meet eligibility requirements.

Investigators also identified what they describe as “phantom enrollments,” in which insurance brokers allegedly enrolled people in Obamacare plans without their knowledge to collect federal commissions.

The report argues that reduced verification requirements made those practices significantly easier to carry out.

Since taking office, the Trump administration says it has restored stricter income verification requirements, ended several special enrollment periods, increased screening for duplicate Medicaid enrollment, and launched investigations into brokers suspected of creating phantom policies.

Officials also say they have strengthened oversight of agents participating in the federal marketplace.

As a result of those efforts, nearly three million enrollments have already been removed from the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

Even after those removals, approximately 19.2 million people remain enrolled.

The administration says its goal is not to reduce legitimate coverage but to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent only on individuals who actually qualify.