The Obama administration hasn’t done enough to ensure that the right people get Obamacare subsidies, according to a new report from congressional Republicans.
The report details earlier investigations into Obamacare’s verification process for income eligibility, which screens whether a person is eligible for tax credits. It also criticizes the administration for relaxing standards for income eligibility.
Republicans criticized the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for relaxing standards on what triggers a more thorough review of an enrollee’s income.
Previously, CMS was supposed to request more documents from an enrollee if there was a greater than 10 percent difference between the self-reported income on an application for subsidies and available data.
For 2017, that threshold will be increased to 25 percent or $6,000, whichever is greater.
“This means it would be harder to detect a case in which an individual reports their expected annual income significantly lower than their actual income,” the report said.
The report, authored by Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, charges that the administration has done little to improve its verification process after independent investigations found failings. Hatch is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and Brady the House Ways and Means Committee.
It points to an investigation by the watchdog Government Accountability Office in which fake applicants signed up and received Obamacare subsidies without having to produce enough information.
Another audit released last month found that nearly 1.6 million taxpayers received about $2 billion in excess advanced tax credits on their tax returns in 2014.
Obamacare enrollees get tax credits one of two ways: through advance tax credits, where they get the credits at the time they sign up, or when they get them in their federal refund.
More than 80 percent of Obamacare customers get some form of subsidy from the federal government. Those subsidies rise alongside any increases in premiums, which the administration has pointed to when defending against high premiums, which on average will be 25 percent higher next year.
The Obama administration did not return a request for comment.
