ACA coverage canceled for 750,000 individuals

On the same day that the Trump administration placed a temporary moratorium on registering new agents to enroll consumers in Affordable Care Act coverage, the administration announced it is canceling ACA coverage for about 750,000 people.

On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz claimed that many of these ACA enrollees were receiving subsidies they didn’t qualify for and that some enrollees did not even exist. Oz also said some of those being removed from the program had "never filed a claim."  The administration did not provide details about who lost coverage or how those individuals were informed.

At a news conference, Vance said the cuts would save U.S. taxpayers about $2 billion. Vance added that CMS will perform additional verification on more than 400,000 ACA enrollees to make sure they are legal U.S. residents and that they meet the income threshold to receive ACA subsidies.

A 2026 Government Accountability Office report outlined how undercover investigators were able to obtain subsidized ACA coverage using fictitious applicants. The GAO also identified tens of thousands of potentially unauthorized broker-of-record changes and noted CMS had received large numbers of complaints linked to unauthorized enrollments and plan switching.

The National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals said canceling ACA coverage for hundreds of thousands of individuals “raises significant concerns just before open enrollment,” which begins Nov. 1.

'We can protect program integrity'

In a statement, NABIP president Mychal Walker said, “Fraud and unauthorized enrollments have no place in the marketplace, and NABIP strongly supports enforcement against those who abuse the system. But canceling approximately 315,000 enrollments covering more than 760,000 individuals while simultaneously imposing a moratorium that prevents some legitimate, licensed agents and brokers from registering for Plan Year 2027 represents significant changes just before open enrollment. We can protect program integrity while also protecting eligible consumers and their access to trusted, licensed professionals.”

ACA enrollment rose from about 11 million to a record 24 million during the Biden administration, when pandemic-era enhanced tax credits expanded eligibility for subsidies. ACA enrollment declined by roughly 3 million people this year after those enhanced subsidies expired, raising monthly premium costs for millions of people. In 2025, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 2.3 million people were improperly receiving enhanced tax credits.

The cancellation of ACA coverage comes on the heels of CMS’ announcement that it issued an interim final rule with comment period, placing a temporary moratorium on new agent and broker registrations for the federally facilitated ACA exchanges for the 2027 plan year.

CMS said a temporary, prospective pause on new agent registrations allows the agency to enhance identity verification, authentication, monitoring and other program-integrity controls before additional agent and broker entrants begin assisting consumers.

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Susan Rupe is editor in chief, magazine, for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected].