The unaffordable Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act—Obamacare—was passed without a single Republican vote, and since, Democrats have been doing their worst to try to convince the public Republicans are to blame for it. That’s because it was never affordable and has required untold billions to prop it up. One might blame John McCain, who was the sole Republican, Trump Derangement Syndrome, vote that prevented repeal of Obamacare.

Americans have eventually tumbled to Obamacare’s reality: the insurance is outlandishly expensive, costs far too much for miserly benefits, and is breaking the taxpayer bank. Now, in a revelation that surprises no one, it’s rife with fraud too.

The report said insurance companies collected $94 million for people who were dead, one piece of what the Congressional Budget Office estimates to be $27 billion in annual Obamacare fraud, according to the National Pulse.

The GAO report said 58,000 Social Security numbers linked to advanced premium tax credits matched numbers in the Social Security death data. More than 7,000 individuals were found to have died before their coverage even began.

In one case, one Social Security number was used to receive 125 insurance policies covering 26,000 days — the equivalent of 71 years of coverage.

In acts of unusual competence, the GAO sent in fake applications without any of the usual documentation necessary for social security numbers, income and citizenship, and again, to no one’s surprise, were approved for Obamacare subsidies in 2024 and 2025.

One might be tempted to think such blatant fraud couldn’t get worse. One would be wrong: it’s worse and has been since at least 2016:

When Barack Obama was president, the same federal watchdog found that nonexistent people routinely got coverage and subsidies.

In 2016, Obama’s final year, his administration still hadn’t designed basic eligibility safeguards for the health-care system he called his greatest achievement.

Biden made the fraud crisis worse when he worked with Democrats in Congress to temporarily expand Obamacare subsidies, creating an even greater incentive to steal from taxpayers.

The IRS has found that 60% of those getting Biden’s bigger subsidies misreported their incomes to boost their benefits.

What’s more, insurance brokers signed up huge numbers of people without their knowledge, getting a $1,000 commission for each family they enrolled.

In November, a jury convicted one insurance broker over his company’s $233 million Obamacare-fraud scheme.

Why is this hitting the news now? The Obamacare subsidies expanded under Biden’s Handlers expire at the end of the year and Democrats want to make them permanent. It’s the usual Republicans are killing children, baby ducks and throwing grandmas off cliffs hysteria from people who make a great deal of money for not doing the people’s business.  Without a permanent extension, the sky will fall and Obamacare won’t be affordable, they wail.

How extra unaffordable will it be? About $3 a week more.

It’s likely too much to ask, but Congress ought to repeal Obamacare and enact whatever sane incentives are necessary to let the free-market handle health insurance. Actual competition reduces costs and encourages better products. At the very least, the system must be reformed to ensure every applicant is completely vetted—not existing ought to be a disqualifier–before government checks start rolling out. We know the dead consistently vote for democrats, but they shouldn’t be getting insurance subsidies along with absentee ballots.

It might also be a good idea to ask whether Obamacare was ever anything other than an illicit means to fill Democrat pockets disguised as health insurance.

This kind of fraud doesn’t happen unless legislators and deep state functionaries intend for it to happen.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.