A recent "undercover enrollment" investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that pretty much anyone can sign up for Obamacare and receive taxpayer funded incentives without having to worry about pesky little details like proving citizenship, identity or income-based needs. In fact, the study found that every single one of its 15 fictitious Obamacare applications were actually approved for coverage despite intentional application omissions, fictitious identification and citizenship documentation, etc. Moreover, all of the applications were also approved for federal subsidies which totaled $60,000 per year. Per the GAO:
Our undercover testing for the 2016 coverage year found that the eligibility determination and enrollment processes of the federal and state marketplaces we reviewed remain vulnerable to fraud, as we previously reported for the 2014 and 2015 coverage years. For each of our 15 fictitious applications, the marketplaces approved coverage, including for 6 fictitious applicants who had previously obtained subsidized coverage but did not file the required federal income-tax returns. Although IRS provides information to marketplaces on whether health-care applicants have filed required returns, the federal Marketplace and our selected state marketplace allowed applicants to instead attest that they had filed returns, saying the IRS information was not sufficiently current. The marketplaces we reviewed also relaxed documentation standards or extended deadlines for filing required documentation. After initial approval, all but one of our fictitious enrollees maintained subsidized coverage, even though we sent fictitious documents, or no documents, to resolve application inconsistencies.
For each of our 15 fictitious applications, the federal or state-based marketplaces approved coverage at time of application—specifically, 14 applications for qualified health plans, and 1 application for Medicaid. Each of the 14 applications for qualified health plans was also approved for APTC subsidies. These subsidies totaled about $5,000 on a monthly basis, or about $60,000 annually. These 14 qualified-health-plan applications also each obtained CSR subsidies, putting the applicants in a position to further benefit if they used medical services. Of the 15 fictitious applications submitted by the GAO, all 15 were initially approved for coverage and subsidies. That said, 3 fictitious enrollees were subsequently kicked out of the exchanges after payments were not processed correctly. Frankly we're shocked that payment is even necessary...these exchanges are heartless.
All but one of our fictitious enrollees maintained subsidized coverage, even though we sent fictitious documents, or no documents, to resolve application inconsistencies.
Of the 15 applications submitted, 4 intentionally omitted income tax return documentation required to approve income-based subsidies. Despite the omission, the GAO found that all 4 enrollees were able to obtain and maintain healthcare coverage and subsidies.
For the other 8 applicants, the GAO made up identities to test whether people submitting fake citizenship and/or social security documentation or those applying for coverage in multiple states could still receive coverage. Turns out that every single one of these applications was also approved and all but 1 was able to maintain coverage. Moreover, these seven successful applicants were able to obtain subsidies totaling about $33,000 annually.