Trump Administration Delivers Second Year of Savings by Stopping Taxpayer Payments for Duplicate and Deceased Enrollees in Obamacare

WASHINGTON, D.C.-OCTOBER 14, 2026-The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a division of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), continue to crush fraud, waste, and abuse in America's healthcare programs by stopping duplicative enrollment in government health programs, with the potential to save taxpayers approximately $1.5 billion annually.

At a press conference today in Washington, D.C., Secretary Kennedy announced that in 2026, CMS identified 189,000 people with subsidized Obamacare coverage through the Federal Marketplace with duplicate Medicare, Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage, or who were deceased - and took swift action to remove Obamacare subsidies for these people to save taxpayer dollars.

"Taxpayers should not foot the bill for duplicate coverage or subsidies for people who have died," said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "HHS is identifying improper enrollments, stopping those payments, and making sure federal dollars support the Americans these programs were created to serve."

"When it comes to program integrity, the Biden Administration was sleeping on the job," said CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. "They paused looking for duplicate Medicaid and Obamacare coverage for four years, creating a backlog of hundreds of thousands of duplicate enrollments. We've already saved nearly $6 billion, and we will continue to work hard to restore taxpayers' confidence that the programs they fund are spending their hard-earned dollars wisely and efficiently."

The Trump Administration restored duplicate enrollment enforcement in 2025, ending duplicate Obamacare subsidies for approximately 551,000 enrollees already receiving coverage under Medicaid.

CMS routinely checks to ensure taxpayers are not subsidizing duplicate Obamacare policies on the Federal Marketplace for beneficiaries already on Medicaid or Medicare. It also checks if taxpayers are paying for Obamacare plans on the Federal Marketplace for deceased people.

Federal regulations require Exchanges to periodically examine data for dual enrollments in Medicaid to guard against improper enrollments in subsidized Exchange plans through a process called Medicaid/CHIP Periodic Data Matching (PDM). These essential examinations were strengthened under the first Trump Administration and increased to at least twice a year but were paused for the duration of the Biden Administration, allowing potentially millions of individuals to be enrolled in multiple federal health insurance programs at once.

Individuals whose records show they receive Obamacare subsidies while also being covered by Medicaid or Medicare are contacted and provided 30 days to dispute they have duplicate coverage or to cancel duplicate coverage. If such individuals fail to do so, CMS ends subsidies for their Obamacare plan.

This process also contacts individuals, or their estate, when federal records say they are deceased. CMS provides 30 days to dispute this record, otherwise their Obamacare subsidy and plan is cancelled.