Vice President JD Vance says he believes that government subsidies provided under the Affordable Care Act contribute to waste and fraud in the insurance industry.
"The tax credits go to some people deservedly," he said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."
But he added that the subsidies create problems.
"We think the tax credits actually go to a lot of waste and fraud within the insurance industry," he said. "So we want to make sure that the tax credits go to the people who need them."
Vance's comments underscore one of the big issues facing Republicans and Democrats in Congress as they debate the future of the tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
Though he said there is some agreement in Washington on some angles of the dilemma, Vance argued that "Obamacare" "gave the health insurance industry a lot of ridiculous regulations that, if we cut out, we could give people access to better healthcare at a lower cost. That's what we're working on."
Vance said more progress would have been made by now if Senate Democrats were more willing to be part of the fix instead of being the problem.
"That's the crazy thing about this," he said. "There's a lot of willingness to negotiate, a lot of willingness to compromise from both the moderate Democrats and certainly from the White House.
"But if the far-left Democrats led by [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] are going to shut down the government and refuse to open up the government unless they get everything they want, that's not a negotiation. That's a hostage-taking."
Vance's comments reflect long-standing conservative arguments against the subsidies. Last month, 35 right-leaning organizations sent a letter to Trump urging him to allow the credits to expire.
"Making the Biden COVID credits permanent would be tremendously expensive, increase premiums in the long-term, and encourage widespread fraud," the letter said.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services oversees fraud prevention through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Between January and August 2024, CMS received over 180,000 complaints of third-party entities fraudulently enrolling consumers in Healthcare.gov and 90,000 complaints related to unauthorized plan switches.
In its Marketplace Integrity and Affordability report released in June, CMS stated that "the widespread availability of $0 premium plans created the incentive and opportunity for fraudulent and improper enrollments at scale, either by the enrollee's own doing or by a third party without the enrollee's knowledge."
Jim Mishler ✉
Jim Mishler, a seasoned reporter, anchor and news director, has decades of experience covering crime, politics and environmental issues.
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