Federal officials are running into problems dealing with millions of "inconsistencies" on Obamacare applications, most of which are caused by an inability to determine if the applicant is a U.S. citizen.
The government has been unable to solve 85 percent of 2.9 million healthcare application discrepancies, or 2.6 million, according to a report released Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General.
The majority of the inconsistencies stemmed from the federal marketplace's inability to verify "citizenship and income," meaning the information entered by the applicant at HealthCare.Gov is different from what the government has on file, Fox News reported. Without that information, federal officials cannot approve that person for coverage.
State marketplaces also have unresolved discrepancies, including California, Connecticut and Massachusetts. One unnamed state even had bizarre cases where babies and children were "erroneously identified as incarcerated," according to the report.
The installation of the Affordable Care Act, which aims make healthcare coverage accessible to all Americans, has faced a slew of problems since the website was launched last October.
Concerns about the safety of customers' information and the cancellation of thousands of healthcare plans were cited by Republicans as reasons that contributed to the botched launch. Former Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who oversaw the launch, resigned over the scandal.
Republicans have jumped at the opportunity to further bash President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act after the report was released.
"When Obamacare was passed, its chief architects told us they would have to pass the bill to find out what was in it," Republican Senator Orrin Hatch told Reuters. "Today's report confirms what we knew was not included: safeguards to protect hard-earned taxpayer dollars from an incompetent bureaucracy."
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which manages Obamacare, said they are contacting the applicants to fix the information and "resolve inconsistencies to make sure that individuals and families get the tax credits and coverage they deserve and that no one receives a benefit they shouldn't," Reuters reported.
© 2025 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
