Politics 4 min read By Callum Montgomery
Trump administration to remove 760,000 from ACA exchanges over fraud claims
Vice President JD Vance says cancelling 315,000 enrolments covering 760,000 people will save $2.2 billion, as the White House escalates its anti-fraud drive and Democrats warn of a worsening healthcare crisis.
The Trump administration will remove 760,000 people from Affordable Care Act health exchanges after alleging they were fraudulently enrolled or do not exist, in a move officials say will save $2.2 billion in subsidy payments.
Vice President JD Vance, who leads a government task force on fraud, said the cancellation of approximately 315,000 enrolments covering those individuals followed a finding that the government was not properly checking whether applicants were eligible. He said a further 419,000 enrolments will undergo additional verification.
«We’re actually making sure that the people receiving Obamacare subsidies are actually entitled to receive them,» Vance said, appearing alongside Dr Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other officials.
The administration also announced a six-month suspension on new agents or brokers who sign up enrolees for healthcare coverage, arguing that such intermediaries account for a disproportionate share of the fraud uncovered.
Roughly 19.2 million Americans are actively enrolled in ACA marketplace plans as of early 2026, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The cancelled enrolments therefore represent a small but politically charged slice of the programme.
The announcement is the latest phase of a wider administration crackdown on fraud in federal programmes, which officials say is needed to rein in spending and protect taxpayers. It lands as stubbornly high inflation and rising healthcare costs press the White House to produce a plan to bring down prices for households, with affordability set to be a central issue in the autumn midterm elections.
ACA premiums have risen sharply for many Americans during Trump’s second term. Republicans opposed extending Covid-era subsidies that had offset the cost of health insurance for most enrolees under President Biden. After the Republican-led Congress allowed those subsidies to expire this year, premiums doubled or tripled for many enrolees, prompting millions to downgrade their plans or leave the programme altogether.
The scale of the fraud the administration claims to have identified remains contested. The Government Accountability Office has said fraud risks in the advance premium tax credit do exist, but it is unclear how widespread they are. In covert testing, the GAO used fictitious ACA applicants in 2024 and 2025. A report released in December showed the federal marketplace approved subsidised coverage for almost all of the GAO’s 24 fake enrolees.
The White House referred questions about broader plans to address healthcare affordability to the Vice President’s team. The Vice President’s office and CMS did not respond to requests for comment.
Democratic lawmakers condemned the removal of enrolees from ACA coverage. Richard E. Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat and ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, said: «Republicans have already created the worst healthcare crisis ever, but every decision by the Trump Administration is designed to keep making it worse.»
He added: «As if making coverage harder to access through skyrocketing premiums and more red tape wasn’t painful enough, they’re doubling down to take it away entirely.»
The political fight now turns on whether the administration can demonstrate that the cancelled enrolments were genuinely fraudulent, and whether the savings materialise without disrupting coverage for eligible Americans. With midterm elections approaching, both parties are positioning themselves on an issue that directly affects millions of households.
7
