By Zachary Stieber
Health officials poring over death records and other data have found that 189,000 people were improperly enrolled in subsidized Affordable Care Act coverage despite also being enrolled in a government insurance coverage program or being dead.
Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services and its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) division reviewed data and identified the duplicative enrollments and enrollments of dead people, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials said during a briefing in Washington on Oct. 14.
“We will follow the evidence, correct mistakes, and pursue fraud whenever we find it,” Kennedy said.
People pegged as being enrolled in Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, marketplace coverage and a government program such as Medicare are notified and given 30 days to provide evidence to resolve the allegations. The estates of people who come up as deceased are also given 30 days to respond.
After the resolution process, officials this year removed from Obamacare 58,000 people who already have Medicare, CMS Deputy Administrator Peter Nelson said during the press conference. Another 11,000 subsidized plans were ended for dead people.
The removals will prevent an estimated $738 million in improper subsidy payments this year.
Officials stressed that the individuals in many instances do not know they are double-enrolled and that they do not lose insurance. Instead, they typically maintain Medicare, Medicaid, or Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage. The government pays for all or portions of those insurance programs.
In 2025, the government ended dual enrollment for about 551,000 individuals already covered by the Children’s Health Insurance Program or Medicaid, officials said on Wednesday. The number was lower this year because “when you check, the system gets cleaner,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said.
The removals are also separate from the recently announced purging of 760,000 accounts that were for people who do not exist or were not eligible for coverage.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
