From Mother Jones · Sophie Hurwitz · · 1m 30s
Vance and Oz are purging 760,000 from Obamacare
The Trump administration is kicking people off ACA coverage by labeling them 'phantom patients' who don't exist or never use their insurance.
In brief
The Trump administration is kicking people off ACA coverage by labeling them 'phantom patients' who don't exist or never use their insurance. The administration is removing hundreds of thousands from health coverage based on a flawed theory that people who don't file claims are fraudulent, when healthy younger people…
760,000 losing Obamacare coverage
Vice President JD Vance and Medicare administrator Mehmet Oz announced the removal of 760,000 people from ACA coverage, claiming they're fraudulent 'phantom patients' who don't exist or don't know they're insured.
“We call them phantoms, because we believe most of them either don't exist or had no idea they had coverage.”
The 'phantom patient' theory
Oz justified the removals by saying people who never file insurance claims must be fraudulent. The logic: if they've never gone to the doctor, they don't really exist or need coverage.
“These are not real people. We're not paying insurance for nonexistent ghosts.”
GOP has pushed this idea for years
Republican think tanks like the Paragon Health Institute have long claimed that patients who don't use coverage are fraudulent 'phantom' enrollees hoarding taxpayer money.
But healthy people don't use insurance
Health policy experts say younger and healthier people commonly buy cheap insurance plans and never use them unless they get sick. Not using coverage doesn't mean it's fraudulent.
“Plenty of people don't use health care.”
Advocates call it a political stunt
Health care advocacy groups say the fraud task force is a smokescreen to strip coverage from real people while pretending to save money, worsening the crisis for millions already losing insurance.
“This so-called task force is nothing more than a bullshit distraction.”
Here's the gist
The administration is removing hundreds of thousands from health coverage based on a flawed theory that people who don't file claims are fraudulent, when healthy younger people commonly buy insurance without using it.
