Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Ghost Enrollees Haunt Obamacare as $10 Billion Fraud Crisis Erupts

Transcript

Ghost Enrollees Haunt Obamacare as $10 Billion Fraud Crisis Erupts · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I guess I have to accept this to Supreme courts,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'll accept.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: I think it's very bad for our nation.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Were the only nation that does it.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: No other nation does that birthright citizenship, No, not even close.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Some did it. They end and it's tremendously destruptive. It's
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: extremely costly. It's up to them, but in terms of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: for the good of the country, would be great if
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: they did they didn't allow it, it would be great,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: But I can't tell you.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Before the July It's so nice to have you with
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: us on the forty seven Morning Update.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: And we've got one big story for you. Plagued with fraud.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: That is how RFK Junior and doctor Oz say what
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: happened to Obamacare and how much money it's taking from
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: your tax dollars with more than one million people apparently
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: getting Obamacare without even having security numbers.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: So how did this happen?
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: Democrats allowed it on purpose, and we explain it to
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  Speaker 4: you forty seven Morning Update, and it starts right now.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Story number one, one of.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: The biggest stories happening in Washington right now isn't getting
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: nearly the attention that it deserves, because if the numbers
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: being released by the Trump administration are holding up the
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: way that, it looks like we're talking about billions of
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: taxpayer dollars and what officials describe as one of the
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  Speaker 4: largest government fraud problems in recent history. This past weekend,
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  Speaker 4: Health and Human Services Secretary rfk Junior and Centers for
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator doctor Odds announced that more
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: than one million Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollments do not
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: have a social Security number on file.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Let me say that again, one million.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: People that signed up for Obamacare did not have a
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: social Security number. They described that figure as a major
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: warning sign for free and said it reflects years of
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: weekend program integrity. Now, it's important to take note that
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: not every enrollment lacking a Social Security number has been
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: proven fraudulent yet, but Secretary Kennedy and Oz argue that
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: the absence of that information is automatically a significant and
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: massive red flag that should have triggered much stronger verification
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: years ago. According to the administration, investigators estimate that now
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Obamacare fraud and improper enrollment has been costing taxpayers roughly
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: ten billion dollars every year during the past several years.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: That's money that officials say should have gone to eligible
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: Americans instead of improper and fraudulent claims. Now, doctor Oz
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: and RFK Junior put out this message to the American people,
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: explaining the fraud that they are now witnessing and exposing.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Healthcare fraud and corruption effect millions of Americans and maybe
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: even you. The Obamacare marketplace is plagued by fraud in
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  Speaker 2: large part because the Biden administration dismantled basic program integrity
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  Speaker 2: guard rails, all partisan lawfare blocked common sense efforts to
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: protect taxpayers. Today, doctor Oz and I are exposing one
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  Speaker 2: of the latest examples of fraud that we've uncovered. More
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  Speaker 2: than a million people enrolled in Obamacare with that was
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: a social Security numbers on file. That is a glaring
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: warning side of fraud. If even a single person was
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: on Obamacare with no Social Security number, we should have
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: found out. Why are we paying people who we don't
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: know if they actually exist?
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: Shady insurance agents and other bad actors have been getting
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: paid to enroll unsuspecting Americans and health plans they never
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: signed up for. These rogue agents have been flooding into
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  Speaker 5: healthcare dot gov that's the Obamacare marketplace. They submit applications
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: for fake people, enroll stolen identities, all to collect millions
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  Speaker 5: of dollars improper fees from insurance companies for selling plans
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  Speaker 5: they never legitimately sold. Some of these agents refuse to
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  Speaker 5: follow basic rules like providing their client's Social Security number. That,
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  Speaker 5: my friends, is a huge red flag.
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  Speaker 2: These fraudsters deliberately picked plans with no premiums. No premiums
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  Speaker 2: means no bill. No bill means most people never know
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: that they've been enrolled in a plan that you and
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: I are paying for with our taxplayer dollars. The only
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: people who benefit are the fraudsters.
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: The Trump administration has zero tolerance for that. So here's
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  Speaker 5: what we're doing about it. And maybe we took swift
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  Speaker 5: action to block this fraudulent behavior directly on healthcare dot
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  Speaker 5: gom and through our marketplace call center. If an agent
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  Speaker 5: wants to be paid, they must follow the rules, no ifs,
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  Speaker 5: ands or butts. They are going to have to provide
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  Speaker 5: government verified information for their clients to be enrolled.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks to this aggressive enforcement strategy, we've already eliminited thousands
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  Speaker 2: of fraudulen pies, and we're just getting started. We're also
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: working with insurers to cancel every policy that should never
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: have been issued and recover every taxpayer dollar that was
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  Speaker 2: fraudulently paid out.
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  Speaker 5: We're also scaling up our enforcement efforts to prevent these
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  Speaker 5: bad actors from finding new ways to manipulate the system
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  Speaker 5: ahead of the open enrollment system this fall. Because we
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  Speaker 5: know the bad actors don't SIP. We stop when you
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  Speaker 5: cut off one vulnerable area. The Biden administration let healthcare
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  Speaker 5: frosters run wild. Thanks to President Trump, those days are over.
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  Speaker 2: To every unscrupulous insurance agent and fraudster exploiting the American people.
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  Speaker 2: Here's our message. If you steal from the American taxpayer,
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  Speaker 2: or if you defraud American families, HHS will find you
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  Speaker 2: and we will hold you accountable.
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  Speaker 5: If you're a froster, here's our advice to you. Do
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  Speaker 5: not walk away from us, run because we are going
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: to find you.
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  Speaker 2: We're just getting started. This is the American people's health,
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  Speaker 2: this is the American people's money, and the Trump Administry
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  Speaker 2: has committed to protecting both. Thank you.
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  Speaker 4: Now, I want you to just go back to the
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  Speaker 4: number and think about this real quick. They're saying roughly
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: ten billion every year during the past several years. Ten
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  Speaker 4: billion dollars. Now that's not pocket change. That's enough money
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  Speaker 4: to build schools, to repair our roads, hire thousands of
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  Speaker 4: law enforcement officers, which would be an amazing idea, or
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: significantly even reduce the federal deficit, which apparently no one's
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: been thinking about. But instead the administration argues much of
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: it was lost and we're not going to get this
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: money back because of oversight systems that weren't working as intended. Now,
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: was that on purpose? There's a very good chance the
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: answer is going to come out to me. Yes, the
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: Democrat said, hey, we want Obamacare to fill our friends
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  Speaker 4: coffers with cash and then they'll support us. Now, you
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: may say that, Ben, that's a crazy idea. It's actually
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: no different than the waste fraud and abuse that we
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: have witnessed first hand in Minnesota, the waste fraud abuse
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  Speaker 4: that we seem with medicare medicating in California and honestly
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  Speaker 4: now basically in every state in America. And many of
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: the people that are doing the waste fraud and abuse
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  Speaker 4: they know who to support. It's not Republicans it is Democrats.
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  Speaker 4: They hate doach, they actually hate anyone. It's fine to
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  Speaker 4: get rid of. Well, they're free paychecks for doing nothing
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  Speaker 4: and screwing the American taxpayer. Now, the administration also says
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: that during the previous administration, the Affordable Care Act enrollment
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: surged dramatically. Again, it goes to the data point that
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  Speaker 4: I was mentioning just a second ago. Democrats weren't trying
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: to stop this fraud. They were actively expanding it, for
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: roughly ten million in rolies at the start of twenty
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: twenty one to more than twenty two million in rollies
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  Speaker 4: by twenty twenty four. How did we go from ten
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: million in rollies of twenty two million? Because they said,
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: take off all the safeguards, take off the bumpers, and
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: let this thing skyrocket out of control, as long as
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: we get some of the money back. Now, officials say
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: some of that growth reflected expanded eligibility and subsidies, but
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: they also contend that weakened verification procedures, meaning these were
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: done on.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Purpose, created opportunities.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: They knew for this system to be abused, and that's
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: exactly what happened. But they were designed for the systems
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: to be abused. Now, among the alleged problems that they
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: highlighted individuals receiving subsidies that they weren't entitled to, income
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: being misstated to qualify for larger taxpayer subsidies. You also
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: had duplicate enrollments, not a few thousands and thousands and
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  Speaker 4: thousands of duplicate enrollments, and that is just simple fraud.
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  Speaker 4: And what officials call phantom enrollments are also a big problem.
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  Speaker 4: That's where insurance brokers enroll people into plans without their
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  Speaker 4: knowledge in order to collect the commissions from enrolling them
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  Speaker 4: in their plans. Why did Democrats allow that to happen
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: so they could again get their friends rich and those
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: friends support them when running for office. Now, doctor os
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: s had some rogue agents even signed unsuspecting Americans up
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: for those zero premium plans, because then those customers might
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: never realize that they'd even been enrolled at all, because
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: they don't cost anything. And as doctor Oz explained, some
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: applications were submitted without basic identifying information. Now, what's basic
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  Speaker 4: identifying information? You know, things you would need to do
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  Speaker 4: to enroll, like so security numbers, which he described as
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  Speaker 4: a major warning sign Democrats knew this was a problem.
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  Speaker 4: They didn't care. In fact, they go back to what
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: I said a moment ago. They designed the system to
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: be abused. Now, the administration sets that has already removed
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: nearly three million million improper are fraudulent enrollments.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to just think about that.
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  Speaker 4: Somebody's set in front of a computer three million times,
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  Speaker 4: and three million times they put in improper information, fraudulent enrollments,
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  Speaker 4: and then the dollars flowed instantly from the Affordable Care
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  Speaker 4: Act rolls three million people they've already said we've gotten
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  Speaker 4: rid of. That's unbelievable. They also believe millions of other
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: question enrollments are now under review, so that number, I'm
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: sure will go up. Officials also estimate that there's about
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: two point six million improper A phantom enrollments that are
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: still being investigated. So the fraud could actually be upwards
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  Speaker 4: of six or seven million fraudulent enrollees into Obamacare, including
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: more than one million they say without the Social Security numbers.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: So what's going to change, Well, you heard them lay
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: it out. According to HHS in the CMS, they're restoring
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: income verification requirements, They're tightening enrollment rules, they're checking for
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  Speaker 4: duplicate Medicaid enrollment, They're investigating fraudulent brokers, and working with
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: insurance companies to cancel policies that officials conclude should never
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: have been issued in the first place. Secretary Kennedy put
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: it bluntly, arguing that the Obamacare marketplace had become plagued
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: with fraud because, in his view, important safeguards had been
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  Speaker 4: weakened deliberately. He asks a question that has become central
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: by the way the administration's message, Why are we paying
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: people we don't know if they actually exist, they're healthcare bills.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: It makes no sense.
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: Now, whether you support Obamacare you oppose it politically, there's
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: one principle that almost everyone should be able to agree on.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: These government programs should be administered accurately. Taxpayer dollars should
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: go only to people who qualify under the law.
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  Speaker 1: What a novel idea.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: If there are fraudulent enrollments, most Americans, I would hope
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: would agree, they should be identified and then they should
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: be removed, which is exactly what the bomb administration look
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  Speaker 4: the other way when the numbers were skyrocketing, and so
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: did Joe Biden.
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  Speaker 1: Now at the same time, it's also important.
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  Speaker 4: I want to be clear that legitimate beneficiaries they get
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: what they deserve. But there's too much fraud now, and
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: the debate now shifts to Congress and to the watchdog agencies.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: The question now.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: Is can investigators document the full scope of these alleged
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: proper payments and then can they recover the taxpayer money?
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately it's not very likely.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: And then how hard is it to really have stronger
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: verification systems that prevent similar problems like this in other
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: government programs? Can there be a safeguard or a system
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: that actually works across the federal government? Because if the
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: administration and estimates are ultimately bore out to what we expect,
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: we're not talking about isolated waste here. We're talking about
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: billions and billions of taxpayer dollars and government programs that
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: officials say we'll have no integrity and they need bare
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: minimum massive reforms. Now, one thing is certain, this investigation
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: is likely to become one of the most significant healthcare
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: oversight stories we've ever seen. And you can also expect
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: lawmakers on the left to look the other way.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: They don't want you to know about this.
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  Speaker 4: Problem, and they sure as hell don't want to fix
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  Speaker 4: it because they're the ones on the left who are
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: getting the massive kickbacks from all of this fraud.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.