Lankford Highlights GAO Findings Exposing Obamacare Marketplace Fraud and Identity Failures

WASHINGTON, DC - US Senator James Lankford (R-OK), Chairman of the Border Management, Federal Workforce, and Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), today highlighted findings from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) during a hearing examining high-risk and fragmented federal programs that undermine fiscal responsibility. The hearing focused in part on GAO's investigative work uncovering identity verification failures in the Affordable Care Act's federal health insurance marketplace.

The hearing comes as Lankford continues his oversight work focused on protecting taxpayers from waste, fraud, and abuse across federal programs, including ensuring that federal benefit systems have basic safeguards in place to verify identity and eligibility before taxpayer dollars are spent.

You can watch the full hearing HERE.

Excerpts:

On GAO's investigative testing of Obamacare enrollment controls:

Lankford: "… I want to go to some of the testing that GAO did on the Affordable Care Act. And they did some quick evaluation to be able to say, 'Can you get into the system and actually sign up for this and not be a person on it?' My understanding is that for 24 different individuals that were fraudulent, individuals that were created to be able to test the system, the results were pretty stark on this…"

GAO: "So, good morning, Senator Moreno, Chairman Lankford… So the actual number is 20 scenarios. We started with four in late 2024. We rolled those over, and we added 16 more to our total. This is based on a comprehensive investigative plan. It is designed specifically to test controls, not project the extent of fraud. So, I want to be very clear, specific about that."

On how the testing was conducted:

GAO: "We are focusing on the federal marketplace. And those 20 scenarios involve ten application actions through HealthCare.gov and ten through brokers, which we selected through the website itself and also through random research on Google."

GAO: "Fourteen of those are single individuals, and six…fourteen of them are at no cost to the enrollee, and six of them do pay a modest premium."

On the results of GAO's testing:

GAO: "We have been successful in 19 of 20 attempts. One attempt was later flagged by CMS in June of this year… But we do have 18 of them that cost the government over $10,000 a month in premiums. We will continue to roll them over and monitor what happens from CMS."

Lankford: "So they're still active even at this moment."

GAO: "They are, as we speak, 18 of the 20 are active."

On the use of completely fabricated identities:

Lankford: "So my question to you on this is, is this false Social Security numbers or is this multiple Social Security numbers. Is this just entering Mickey Mouse and a fake address in Orlando? And well, I guess that would be Mickey's actual address. But yeah… So, is this a fake name and fake everything?"

GAO: "Everything is fake, sir. All the information, driver's license, the Social Security number, pay stubs, birth certificates, anything and everything that the marketplace has asked us to submit is fake."

On repeated use of the same Social Security number in actual data:

Lankford: "My understanding is there's also, you've discovered some folks that are in…there are some Social Security numbers that are in there multiple, multiple times. So what are you finding in that where this is not your test of 20 different folks?"

GAO: "That is actual data. That is actual data."

Lankford: "What are you finding with the same Social Security number being used over and over and over again?"

GAO: "Yeah, I will highlight the most egregious one we have to date, which is 127 policies attached to a single number that's costing the government about $600,000 a year in subsidies. And it's a mix of full-year and part-year policies. And the critical point is the 33 full-year policies are spread across 13 different states, and they involve a mix of genders. SO that is a red flag that something isn't right here."

On CMS's response to clear red flags:

Lankford: "You would think that you would notice that the same Social Security number has multiple genders and lives in multiple states?"

GAO: "Yes. And when we pressed CMS on that, Mr. Chairman, their response is, 'We really are not going to do anything because we don't want to kick off the wrong person…"

Lankford: "Well, that's a problem."

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