(The Center Square) – In the latest move by the Trump administration to root out government waste, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid plan to remove duplicative health insurance coverage from 2.8 million Americans improperly enrolled in taxpayer-funded healthcare plans.
CMS analyzed Medicaid enrollment data from 2024 and found that each month, roughly 1.2 million individuals were enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP in multiple states while roughly 1.6 million people were enrolled in one of those programs as well as a subsidized Affordable Care Act (ACA) Exchange plan.
The erroneous enrollments have cost the federal government and taxpayers approximately $14 billion per year in duplicate payments. CMS says it will partner with states to end the inappropriate payments while ensuring that those 2.8 million Americans retain correct healthcare coverage.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., praised CMS’s actions in a Monday statement, saying it “builds upon work by House Republicans” in the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which “gives tools to CMS and the States to prevent wasteful spending like this from happening again.”
Even though federal regulations require ACA exchanges, or marketplaces, to regularly inspect data for improper enrollments via the Medicaid Periodic Data Matching process, the Biden administration temporarily halted these examinations to ensure continuous enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our health care safety nets should serve the most vulnerable Americans—not be an open tab for fraud and abuse,” House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said in a statement. “I’m encouraged to see CMS moving fast to fix this problem – but make no mistake: this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to waste, fraud, and abuse in our government.”
Beginning in early August, CMS will provide states with lists of people enrolled in multiple states or in multiple plans and require states to confirm these enrollees’ eligibility. CMS will also notify individuals who are dual enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP and an ACA Exchange plan and ask them to either disenroll in the program(s) or end their subsidy.
“We are going to work with states to identify individuals enrolled in multiple programs and fix the duplicate enrollment problem to save taxpayers billions of dollars, while minimizing inappropriate coverage loss,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz promised.
“This is exactly why we fought for stronger tools in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – to go after this type of waste and finally put a stop to paying twice for the same person’s health coverage,” he said.
