Dr Oz and Trump’s health team shredded for ‘shameful’ reason behind bouncing 760,000 from medical coverage
Por Brendan Rascius — – World RSS Feed
Dr Oz and Trump’s health team shredded for ‘shameful’ reason behind bouncing 760,000 from medical coverage
‘So you pay for insurance, stay healthy enough not to use it, and somehow that makes your coverage suspicious?’ one user asked
Brendan Rascius in New York Wednesday 23 September 2026 16:14 BST
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Trump administration officials said they booted thousands of people from their health coverage because they never filed claims and could not be contacted — and the internet had a field day pointing out the problem with the thinking.
On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz announced that 760,000 people had been kicked off health insurance purchased in the federal Affordable Care Act marketplace, arguing those individuals were either enrolled fraudulently or did not exist. They said the initiative — part of a broader effort to crack down on fraud — would save about $2.2 billion in taxpayer dollars.
“We call them phantoms because we believe most of them either don’t exist or had no idea they had coverage,” Oz said during a press conference. “We believe that because we’ve been writing them, Telexing them, you know, walking to them, Fedexing, whatever we could possibly do to get in touch with them. They won’t answer.”
“And they have never filed a claim, so it meets all the criteria for us to pretty, as much as any government can, say you actually don’t know you have this or you don’t exist,” he added.
Oz’s remarks, which drew millions of views on social media, quickly prompted criticism from people who insisted that his reasoning was flawed.
open image in gallerySome said they routinely ignore government outreach.
“Could be me. I dodge all spam calls. Especially Healthcare ones,” one X user wrote. “Cause I already pay for my insurance and don’t have anything they need. Or so I thought.”
But much of the backlash focused on the Trump administration’s suggestion that not filing an insurance claim could itself be evidence of fraud. Typically people who do not file claims are welcomed because they are paying into the insurance pool, but not receiving services that end up costing money.
“So you pay for insurance, stay healthy enough not to use it, and somehow that makes your coverage suspicious?” one user asked. Another wrote: “So car insurance will kick us off next b/c we never got into a car wreck? Or life insurance kicks us off b/c we never died?”
One commenter said Oz’s rationale misunderstands a basic premise of health insurance.
“But that’s how insurance works,” they wrote. “The majority of healthy people paying their monthly bill funds the people who are sick or injured and need assistance. What are we even doing here?”
“How is it fraud if they aren’t even filing claims?” another user asked.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote: “The Trump Administration’s shameless decision to rip away health insurance from thousands will leave working families unable to get the care they need. Using the false pretext of fighting fraud to strip Americans of their healthcare is as cynical as it is cruel.”
open image in galleryMelanie D’Arrigo, executive director of Campaign for New York Health, tweeted: “Your reminder that private health insurance companies defraud taxpayers by at least $80 billion per year, and no one is holding them accountable because the insurance industry spent over $100 million in the last election.”
And Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic & Policy Research, reacted to a clip of Oz explaining the policy on Fox News by writing: “Can a person be this stupid and breathe? I have had homeowners and car insurance for decades and never used them. In fact, in many years I didn’t use my health insurance. I’m very glad for that.”
The centers insinuated that the losses were not primarily tied to claims spending. Instead, officials said, fraud stemmed from bad actors, such as brokers, enrolling consumers in coverage without their knowledge in order to collect federal premium subsidies.
Government data does indicate the Affordable Care Act marketplace faces fraud risks. In a report last year, the Government Accountability Office said the federal marketplace approved subsidized coverage for most of the fictitious applicants it submitted as part of a covert test.
Still, some health policy experts have raised concerns about the Trump administration’s approach to combating fraud.
“I think there’s no question that somebody who was fraudulently enrolled should have their coverage canceled,” Cynthia Cox, a vice president at the healthcare research nonprofit KFF, told The Associated Press. “I think the question is whether this was the appropriate process by which to identify fraudulent enrollees, and also whether all of them were indeed fraudulently enrolled.”
“There’s a lot of work to be done, and the Trump administration has done some good things that are targeting the actual fraudsters,” Ellen Montz, a former CMS official who served under former President Joe Biden, told the outlet. That said, she added: “I would imagine we’ll hear from some subset of consumers that ask: why did my enrollment get cancelled?”
This latest effort to root out fraud in the health care system comes as the price for ACA insurance has soared following Congress’ failure to extend pandemic-era subsidies last year.
According to a June Gallup survey, fewer than half of Americans can now consistently afford healthcare, marking the first time this threshold has been passed in five years.
The Independent has contacted the centers for comment.
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