An investigation of internal Obama administration documents by the Washington Post has discovered that as many as one million Obamacare enrollees may be receiving incorrect taxpayer-funded subsidies due to persistent technical problems with President Barack Obama’s controversial and unpopular health care law.
“The problem means that potentially hundreds of thousands of people are receiving bigger subsidies than they deserve,” reports Washington Post reporters Amy Goldstein and Sandhya Somashekhar. “They are part of a large group of Americans who listed incomes on their insurance applications that differ significantly–either too low or too high–from those on file with the Internal Revenue Service, documents show.”
The million Obamacare customers receiving improper taxpayer-funded subsidies are required to upload or mail in verifying pay stubs and other documents confirming their income. However, few have done so. Moreover, as the Post reports, “even when they have, the federal computer system at the heart of the insurance marketplace cannot match this proof with the application because that capability has yet to be built.”
Last July, the Obama administration raised taxpayers’ ire when it announced it would use the “honor system” for income verification. Conservatives blasted the move as a cynical strategy to get dole out taxpayer-funded subsidies to as many Obamacare customers as possible–whether deserved or not–to make repeal more difficult.
Obamacare customers who are found to be receiving improper taxpayer-funded subsidies are required to return them by next year.
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