Investigators using fake names land subsidized health coverage

WASHINGTON — Undercover investigators using fake identities were able to secure taxpayer-subsidized health insurance under President Barack Obama’s health care law, congressional investigators said Wednesday.

The weak link seemed to be call centers that handled applications for frazzled consumers unable to get through online.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office told a House committee that its investigators were able to get subsidized health care under fake names in 11 out of 18 attempts — even after healthcare.gov’s much maligned online system flagged some applications as problematic.

The GAO is still paying premiums for the policies, even as the Obama administration tries to verify phony documentation.

Those follow-up verification checks also appeared to need tightening; the GAO said parts of the fake documentation it submitted for two applications actually got through the process.

Nonetheless, GAO audits and investigations chief Seto Bagdoyan told the House Ways and Means Committee that the agency has not drawn any sweeping conclusions from what he called its “preliminary” findings. A full assessment will take months.

In the real world, it may be difficult for fraud artists to profit from the nation’s newest social program because government health care subsidies are paid directly to insurance companies.

Still, GAO’s report opened another line of attack for Republican lawmakers who

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS