Brian Blase, Ph.D., is the President of Paragon Health Institute. Brian was Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House’s National Economic Council (NEC) from 2017-2019, where he coordinated the development and execution of numerous health policies and advised the President, NEC director, and senior officials. After leaving the White House, Brian founded Blase Policy Strategies and served as its CEO.
Explaining the Rise of Phantom ACA Patients
Profs. Amy Finkelstein and Matthew Notowidigdo miss the point: Poor public policy led to large numbers of phantom ObamaCare enrollees, not legitimate enrollees who use no healthcare services (“The Necessity of ObamaCare,” Letters, Aug. 20). The problem isn’t real people with coverage they don’t use—it’s fraudulent sign-ups who never should have been subsidized.
President Biden’s Covid credits, which made many plans fully taxpayer-subsidized, created perverse incentives. Bad actors rushed to maximize commissions by enrolling people regardless of eligibility. That led to fraudulent enrollment, with some unaware they were signed up and others covered elsewhere.
Using conservative assumptions, Paragon estimates that 6.4 million people who weren’t eligible were enrolled in a fully subsidized plan in 2025. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data show the consequence: a spike in enrollees with no healthcare claims.
The full letter to the editor can be found in The Wall Street Journal.
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