Fraud scrutiny clouds Schumer’s Obamacare credit push after his Pentagon ‘luxury’ spending jab
This is performative politics again.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s push to revive expired enhanced Obamacare tax credits by contrasting their cost with Pentagon spending is colliding with fresh scrutiny of the Affordable Care Act, as policy experts warn the program is riddled with improper enrollments, fraud vulnerabilities and rising taxpayer costs.
"We need to reform the ACA, not throw more taxpayer money at it," Brian Blase, president of the health policy research group Paragon Health Institute, said. He added that "government subsidies don’t make the coverage more affordable. They make it more expensive overall because you have to consider the taxpayer amount."
Blase spoke to Fox News Digital this month after Schumer made a viral swipe at Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth for spending $93.4 billion in the final month of the last fiscal year, including millions of dollars in luxury foods, such as king crab, for the troops.
The New York Democrat seized on the Pentagon spending figure to make a political point that the same amount could cover extending enhanced ACA tax credits for three years, even though defense funds are not directly fungible with Obamacare subsidies.
DUELING OBAMACARE PLANS SET TO FAIL AS DEADLINE NEARS, PUSHING SENATE TOWARD BIPARTISAN TALKS
"Hegseth spent $93 billion in one month – roughly the cost of extending the ACA tax credits for THREE YEARS. But instead of lowering American’s healthcare costs, Hegseth used millions of taxpayer dollars on fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan King Crabs, and a Steinway & Sons grand piano," Schumer posted to X last week.
Blase argued that the ACA is fraught with improper and "phantom" enrollees on top of proven fraud for which the Department of Justice has secured convictions, and that more funding was not the answer. The ACA’s premium subsidies are financed by the federal government, and advance payments of those tax credits are made on eligible enrollees’ behalf directly to insurers to reduce monthly premiums.
A lot of Democrats have "conflated" the issue of extending enhanced ACA subsidies, but the "original Obamacare subsidies remain in place, and they are very generous," Blase said, noting that those original subsidies are permanent and in place by statute and that the enhanced subsidies are merely a costly bonus.
The enhanced subsidies, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, made some marketplace plans free for certain low-income enrollees. Paragon Health estimated that more than 6.4 million enrollees may have reported incomes low enough to qualify even though many …
This is performative politics again.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s push to revive expired enhanced Obamacare tax credits by contrasting their cost with Pentagon spending is colliding with fresh scrutiny of the Affordable Care Act, as policy experts warn the program is riddled with improper enrollments, fraud vulnerabilities and rising taxpayer costs.
"We need to reform the ACA, not throw more taxpayer money at it," Brian Blase, president of the health policy research group Paragon Health Institute, said. He added that "government subsidies don’t make the coverage more affordable. They make it more expensive overall because you have to consider the taxpayer amount."
Blase spoke to Fox News Digital this month after Schumer made a viral swipe at Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth for spending $93.4 billion in the final month of the last fiscal year, including millions of dollars in luxury foods, such as king crab, for the troops.
The New York Democrat seized on the Pentagon spending figure to make a political point that the same amount could cover extending enhanced ACA tax credits for three years, even though defense funds are not directly fungible with Obamacare subsidies.
DUELING OBAMACARE PLANS SET TO FAIL AS DEADLINE NEARS, PUSHING SENATE TOWARD BIPARTISAN TALKS
"Hegseth spent $93 billion in one month – roughly the cost of extending the ACA tax credits for THREE YEARS. But instead of lowering American’s healthcare costs, Hegseth used millions of taxpayer dollars on fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan King Crabs, and a Steinway & Sons grand piano," Schumer posted to X last week.
Blase argued that the ACA is fraught with improper and "phantom" enrollees on top of proven fraud for which the Department of Justice has secured convictions, and that more funding was not the answer. The ACA’s premium subsidies are financed by the federal government, and advance payments of those tax credits are made on eligible enrollees’ behalf directly to insurers to reduce monthly premiums.
A lot of Democrats have "conflated" the issue of extending enhanced ACA subsidies, but the "original Obamacare subsidies remain in place, and they are very generous," Blase said, noting that those original subsidies are permanent and in place by statute and that the enhanced subsidies are merely a costly bonus.
The enhanced subsidies, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, made some marketplace plans free for certain low-income enrollees. Paragon Health estimated that more than 6.4 million enrollees may have reported incomes low enough to qualify even though many …
Fraud scrutiny clouds Schumer’s Obamacare credit push after his Pentagon ‘luxury’ spending jab
This is performative politics again.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s push to revive expired enhanced Obamacare tax credits by contrasting their cost with Pentagon spending is colliding with fresh scrutiny of the Affordable Care Act, as policy experts warn the program is riddled with improper enrollments, fraud vulnerabilities and rising taxpayer costs.
"We need to reform the ACA, not throw more taxpayer money at it," Brian Blase, president of the health policy research group Paragon Health Institute, said. He added that "government subsidies don’t make the coverage more affordable. They make it more expensive overall because you have to consider the taxpayer amount."
Blase spoke to Fox News Digital this month after Schumer made a viral swipe at Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth for spending $93.4 billion in the final month of the last fiscal year, including millions of dollars in luxury foods, such as king crab, for the troops.
The New York Democrat seized on the Pentagon spending figure to make a political point that the same amount could cover extending enhanced ACA tax credits for three years, even though defense funds are not directly fungible with Obamacare subsidies.
DUELING OBAMACARE PLANS SET TO FAIL AS DEADLINE NEARS, PUSHING SENATE TOWARD BIPARTISAN TALKS
"Hegseth spent $93 billion in one month – roughly the cost of extending the ACA tax credits for THREE YEARS. But instead of lowering American’s healthcare costs, Hegseth used millions of taxpayer dollars on fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan King Crabs, and a Steinway & Sons grand piano," Schumer posted to X last week.
Blase argued that the ACA is fraught with improper and "phantom" enrollees on top of proven fraud for which the Department of Justice has secured convictions, and that more funding was not the answer. The ACA’s premium subsidies are financed by the federal government, and advance payments of those tax credits are made on eligible enrollees’ behalf directly to insurers to reduce monthly premiums.
A lot of Democrats have "conflated" the issue of extending enhanced ACA subsidies, but the "original Obamacare subsidies remain in place, and they are very generous," Blase said, noting that those original subsidies are permanent and in place by statute and that the enhanced subsidies are merely a costly bonus.
The enhanced subsidies, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, made some marketplace plans free for certain low-income enrollees. Paragon Health estimated that more than 6.4 million enrollees may have reported incomes low enough to qualify even though many …
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