Obamacare fraud captures GOP attention

President Obama

A federal watchdog has set Republicans on Capitol Hill on edge, underscoring earlier warnings about the possibility for fraud in Obamacare and reporting that 11 of 12 people who were fabricated for test reasons were able to enroll as fake recipients in the government-run health care plan.

The Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan agency that conducted the test, reported the 11 fake applicants were able to keep their coverage for several months, through the end of 2014 and, for some, into 2015. The Hill reported many of these fake individuals were automatically re-enrolled in Obamacare, without having to provide any new documentation proving their eligibility.

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The marketplace actually ended coverage for six of the 11 – but then the GAO was able to reinstate coverage for five with a simple telephone call.

"That the administration failed to weed out fake applicants one year later is yet another shocking development that, unfortunately, continues the trend of ObamaCare’s gross mismanagement at the expense of hardworking taxpayers," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, the Hill reported."

Critics say the enrollment fraud is due to the Obama administration's push to get as many people in the system as possible.

"There's been more of a push to get people enrolled and then kind of catch up with the validation and integrity piece of it," said Louis Saccoccio, CEO of the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, a public-private partnership, the Hill reported.