Obamacare’s Phantom Enrollees: Congress Wants to Extend a Broken System

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A blistering breakdown of how Congress—Republicans and Democrats alike—is rushing to extend COVID-era Obamacare subsidies despite years of GAO sting operations proving rampant fraud. From fictitious applicants sailing through the federal marketplace to insurance companies cashing in on taxpayer-funded subsidies, this episode calls out lawmakers for celebrating “legislating” while ignoring the rot underneath. If subsidies only inflate prices and enrich insurers, why is Washington doubling down? Strap in for a no-nonsense look at the political playacting, perverse incentives, and taxpayer-funded grift that both parties pretend not to see.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Obamacare Fraud and Lies. Watched Little c Span yesterday. Yeah,
because I'm not not a dork. I wanted to see
what these members of Congress were saying about, Oh, extending
the COVID subsidies. We have to extend it. They come

(00:37):
up at the end of the year. What are we
gonna do? No, And there's Mike, Mike Lawler, Republican from
New York, and he's talking. He's getting together with a
bunch of Democrats there. We've got a leadership. And this
is this is what legislating is all about. You guys,

(00:58):
don't do anything legislating. What what are you doing? You're
going out and you are extending subsidies that were from
the COVID era that we can't even afford. So, yeah,
Mike Lawler, Republican wants to extend these COVID era subsidies

(01:22):
for two years. Two years. Well, but you know, don't
worry because Mike Johnson. He's on everything out there, and
he's got a lot of ideas. He's got ideas. He's
got like they did in Raiders at a Lost Dark.
He's got top men working on it right now. Who
top men. Here's a story for you. Affordable Care Act

(01:49):
subsidies have been granted without the required documentation to ninety
percent of fictitious applicants over the past two years. The
GAO's preliminary findings of ongoing and covert testing of Obamacare
found fraud risks in the federal AAA marketplace, specifically related

(02:13):
to the healthcare program's Advance Premium Tax credit. Yeah, this
is the one they want to extend. This is the
one I want to extend. There's big problems here. The
federal marketplace approved coverage for nearly all of GAO's fictitious
applicants in plan years twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five,

(02:37):
and this is consistent with similar GAO testing between twenty
fourteen and two thousand and sixteen and twenty twenty four.
The fake applicants received coverage with lower monthly premiums thanks
to a two three hundred and fifty per month in
Obamacare subsidies granted to the insurance company. Yay, we're the

(03:02):
insurance company. We love this. And you know, I could
go on here here you talk about other ones, you know,
being approved for over ten thousand dollars a month miss again,
simple fix, misuse of Social Security numbers, dead people receiving
coverage again. And the funny thing is is that they

(03:27):
saw it. They didn't do anything about it. Yeah, thet
it go, they.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Go, It's Friday, Friday. We're government employees. I don't want
to work. I want to bang on.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Their drums all day. I mean I that reminds me
back when I was a kid again growing up in Auburny,
New York. Picks one oh six, the local rock station
used to all the time. Again it's an ongoing joke
about the state workers up there and never working. And yeah,
they used to do that all that. They had state
worker songs all the time, and.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Everybody went along with it because everybody was doing it
and everybody was grifting off the government, and everybody does
grift off the government.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's okay, that's okay, all we got it. We have
to do something. We have to do something right now.
People's premiums are going up I got an idea. Well,
if they can't afford it, they're go I guess they're
gonna have to drop their insurance. Then what's gonna happen
Is the sky gonna fall? Is the world gonna end? No? No,

(04:28):
these insurance companies, they have shareholders, They have shareholders, and
they're gonna have to figure a way to bring the
prices their product down so people can actually afford to
pay it. You see, all of you left wing and
right wing. I'm sorry for lack of a better word,
morons out there, doesn't matter if you're left or right

(04:50):
on both sides. Subsidies, handouts drive the price of things
up to real simple concept that nobody really seems to understand.
A Republicans and Democrats kombye ya, my lord God, all
holding the hands. It's like the uh, well, the Coca
Cola commercial back from the early seventies, there was that.

(05:13):
You know, I'd like to teach the world to sing
hand out more money to insurance company. That's what they're doing.
They're just gonna hand more. But that's okay for them
because for their efforts, for the efforts, uh, they're gonna
get a check. They're gonna get a check. It just

(05:35):
reminded me of Caddyshack when Bill Murray's doing that bit
when he's caddying for the Dalai Lama and at the
end he's like, you know, how ab at a little
souping for the effort? Oh well, you have no money,
but when you die, you're going to receive total consciousness anyway. Yeah, no, no,
not not not members of Congress. Oh they're gonna get paid.
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