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Moore cites GAO report and WSJ editorial warning of fraud risks in enhanced premium tax credits
Summary
In a short video, Congressman Blake Moore cited a Government Accountability Office report and a Wall Street Journal editorial to argue that COVID-era enhancements to premium tax credits — which reduce or eliminate enrollee costs and expire at year-end — increase the risk of improper enrollments and higher premiums.
Congressman Blake Moore said in a brief online video that a Government Accountability Office report and a Wall Street Journal editorial raise concerns that expanded premium tax credits enacted in 2021 have increased the risk of improper or fraudulent enrollments and helped inflate insurance costs.
Moore, identified in the video as "Congressman Blake Moore," said the COVID-era changes to the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits reduced required enrollee payments in some cases from a small percentage of income to zero, and that the enhanced credits are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. He cited the GAO and the editorial as the basis for his concerns.
Using a simplified example, Moore said an individual at 100% of the federal poverty level — which he referred to as $15,650 in annual income — would previously have been required to pay about 2% of income toward premiums (he calculated roughly $313). Using a $4,000 annual premium for illustration, Moore said the federal subsidy would cover the remainder and be sent directly to insurers. "That’s what the subsidy is," he said.
Moore said the 2021 enhancements reduced required enrollee contributions toward some plans to $0, meaning federal funds could cover the full premium. "When you move it to $0, the fraud becomes even more prominent," he said, arguing that zero-dollar cost-sharing can allow people to be enrolled without knowing it and create opportunities for discrepancies the GAO report identified.
He also asserted that broad subsidies can raise market prices, saying premiums have risen substantially since the ACA era; in the video he characterized the increase as "upwards to 80%." Moore tied that dynamic to the subsidy structure — an economic observation he attributed to general market effects rather than to a specific study in the video.
Moore added that eligibility was expanded under the enhancement, referencing a change that affected households above the previous 400% federal poverty threshold by using a different metric (he referenced "8.5" in describing the new formula). He said Republicans opposed removing income caps and framed the expiration of the enhanced credits as an important deadline.
The video does not include independent documentation of the GAO report’s findings or of the specific numbers Moore cited; his claims about enrollment, non-use of services, the magnitude of premium increases and the extent of fraud are presented as his interpretation of the cited pieces. Moore said he linked the GAO report and the Wall Street Journal editorial in the video description.
The enhanced premium tax credits Moore discussed were enacted as temporary COVID-era changes and, according to him in the video, are set to lapse at the end of the year. He closed by urging viewers to consider the potential for improper enrollments and the fiscal and market effects of the subsidies.
