Anti-Fraud Task Force Purges 760,000 Obamacare Enrollees
by Lawrence Wilson, The Epoch Times, September 23, 2026
The Epoch Times reported that on September 22 Vice President JD Vance announced the federal government has removed hundreds of thousands of Obamacare enrollments created for people who either do not meet eligibility requirements or simply do not exist. The White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud action targets 760,000 accounts and will save taxpayers an estimated $2.2 billion, according to federal officials. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz also announced removal of hundreds of brokers and agents believed to have knowingly enrolled people who did not qualify or did not exist, plus a six-month moratorium on enrollment of new brokers.
"We had a system in this country that rewarded brokers, that made people rich for enrolling fake people in programs that are meant to ensure that our fellow citizens have healthcare. This was a scandal," Vance said at the September 22 press conference. Trump named Vance the administration's "fraud czar" earlier this year. Oz said the 760,000 enrollees removed had never paid a premium or filed a claim, leading officials to conclude they either did not need the program or do not exist; they were removed only after persistent contact attempts failed. Another roughly 420,000 enrollees will be further examined for eligibility, Vance said.
A Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services fact sheet dated September 22 states that on August 31, 2026, CMS canceled approximately 315,000 enrollments covering over 760,000 individuals after confirmation those enrollments were unauthorized, expecting a return of about $2.2 billion in advance payments of the premium tax credit. CMS also reported sending termination notices to over 200 non-compliant agents and brokers since January 2026, issuing 569 notices of intent to terminate for 2026 applications lacking identifying information such as Social Security numbers, and announcing a temporary moratorium on registering agents and brokers for 2027 who lack an active 2026 Exchange Agreement. Newly registered 2026 brokers were disproportionately associated with unauthorized enrollments and verification failures, CMS said.
Epoch notes Obamacare enrollment was around 10 million before the COVID era but spiked above 24 million after regulations expanded eligibility and allowed some coverage with no premium payment. A Paragon Health Institute report cited by Epoch estimated some 6.2 million enrollments for this year were improper — about 27 percent of all enrollments. Vance argued fraud raises costs for everyone: "When you take $2 billion—that's 550,000 children's worth of healthcare—out of the system and put it into fraud, that raises costs for everybody." Oz stated more simply, "Fraud will destroy Obamacare."
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said the executive order creating the task force set technological requirements for detecting fraud before claims are paid. HHS deputy secretary nominee Chris Klomp said fraud networks migrate across programs and that agencies are learning to fight networks rather than play "whack-a-mole." Officials said the announcement follows two dozen prior task-force enforcement actions resulting in charges, convictions, or apprehension of more than 500 individuals, removal of more than 1,000 California hospices from Medicare, and claimed taxpayer savings greater than $300 billion. Dispute label: administration frames mass unauthorized enrollments as broker-driven fraud; critics may dispute scope or methodology of Paragon's 6.2 million improper-enrollment estimate.
