A federal watchdog found holes in Obamacare’s application process, with Republican lawmakers pouncing on the findings.
The Government Accountability Office released a report Thursday that found nine out of 12 false Obamacare applications filed as part of an experiment were approved this year during special enrollment periods. The report is the latest to document fictitious Obamacare applicants getting through the administration’s verification process.
The report comes as the GOP-controlled Congress has made repealing the law a top priority next year.
The 2016 applications were made during a special enrollment period, which is outside of the law’s general open enrollment period. A special enrollment period is used when someone loses his or her health coverage because of events such as a layoff, marriage or having a baby.
House Republicans lambasted the Obama administration for not doing enough to prevent false applicants from signing up.
“This report confirms what we’ve known all along: Bad actors are taking advantage of loose enforcement mechanisms to access highly subsidized healthcare plans,” said Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in a joint statement.
Upton is the outgoing chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, while Brady heads the House Ways and Means Committee, and Hatch is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
The report comes as the administration has tried to clamp down on special enrollment periods at the behest of insurers that are losing money on the exchanges.
The beginning of Obamacare’s marketplaces in 2014 had far more special enrollment periods for situations such as someone being confused about how to sign up for the law.
However, lax special enrollment periods can wreak havoc for insurer finances as someone can sign up when they get sick and then drop out when they get better. This leaves insurers to pick up more of the bill and has led to complaints from the insureres.
In the latest GAO report, the watchdog submitted 12 applications. For five applicants, the GAO didn’t provide any documents to support the triggering event for signing up for a special enrollment period, but were approved for coverage anyway, it said.
GAO, Congress’ investigative arm, has conducted reports previously that documented fictitious applicants getting through during open enrollment. Last year, GAO submitted 10 fictitious applications and all of them were approved.
A report released in February called for a series of recommendations for the administration to take to improve its verification process. That included conducting a fraud-risk assessment to look for holes in the marketplace.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not immediately return a request for comment.
Administration officials have previously said that they have implemented prior recommendations from the GAO.
