{"id":21136,"date":"2014-07-24T14:20:52","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T18:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=21136"},"modified":"2014-07-24T14:20:52","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T18:20:52","slug":"obamacare%e2%80%99s-eligibility-verification-system-open-to-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/21136\/obamacare%e2%80%99s-eligibility-verification-system-open-to-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"ObamaCare\u2019s Eligibility Verification System Open to Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Government Accountability Office <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationaljournal.com\/health-care\/the-gao-launched-an-obamacare-sting-operation-and-almost-all-fake-insurance-applications-were-approved-20140723 \" target=\"_blank\">set up a sting operation<\/a> to test whether ObamaCare\u2019s eligibility verification system is open to abuse.<\/p>\n<p>GAO discovered a resounding Yes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFake applicants were able to get subsidized insurance coverage in 11 of 18 attempts,\u201d reports National Journal.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators had the most success when using ObamaCare\u2019s online and telephone enrollment systems. These improper enrollments resulted in subsidies totaling $30,000 annually.<\/p>\n<p>The findings of the sting operation bode ill for the controversial health reform law. The failure to correctly match applicants to subsidies indicates that ObamaCare\u2019s expensive digital architecture is failing in one of its most basic tasks.<\/p>\n<p>And the failure could be costly.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming most ObamaCare applicants are not attempting to defraud taxpayers \u2013 but rather are just trying to comply with the law\u2019s individual mandate \u2013 incorrectly receiving financial help this year could result in a heavier tax bill next year. That\u2019s because the IRS is tasked with settling accounts on ObamaCare subsidies, with taxpayers required to pay back any subsidies they weren\u2019t eligible for when calculating their income tax liability.<\/p>\n<p>So far, the IRS hasn\u2019t <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/articles\/reining-in-obamacareand-the-president-1406071746\" target=\"_blank\">rewritten ObamaCare<\/a> to cushion the blow from bad drafting \u2013 like it did when it made subsidies available to citizens in states without a state-based exchange.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, that kind of face-saving deference is only extended to government-growing ideologues; not every day Americans just trying to play by the rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Government Accountability Office set up a sting operation to test whether ObamaCare\u2019s eligibility verification system is open to abuse. GAO discovered a resounding Yes. \u201cFake applicants were able to get subsidized insurance coverage in 11 of 18 attempts,\u201d reports National Journal. Investigators had the most success when using ObamaCare\u2019s online and telephone enrollment systems. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2147,735,35,2249],"class_list":["post-21136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-gao","tag-irs","tag-obamacare","tag-subsidy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21136"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21146,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21136\/revisions\/21146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}