The government is giving away money! So say ads on a variety of social media platforms. Consumers, the ads claim , can qualify for $1,400 or even $6,400 a month to use on groceries, rent, medical expenses, and other bills. Some mention no-cost health insurance coverage.
But that’s not the whole story. And here’s the spoiler — no one is getting monthly checks to help with these everyday expenses. Such ads are now under scrutiny for the role they may play in helping rogue insurance agents and companies sign up tens of thousands of consumers for Affordable Care Act coverage — or switch them from their existing ACA plans — without their express permission.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the federal ACA marketplace, also known as Obamacare, has reported at least 90,000 complaints about unauthorized enrollment or plan-switching in the first quarter of the year. Congress wants answers Those numbers have also caught the attention of House Republicans, who on June 28 requested investigations by the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services. Fraud — including from unauthorized switches by brokers, as reported by KFF Health News and NPR in recent months and noted in the congressional requests — might be part of the problem, House members wrote.
They cited an analysis from a conservative group that estimated that millions of people — or their brokers — reported incorr.