<p class="wp-block-mj-blocks-mj-headers"></p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><span class="section-lead">The Trump administration</span> announced the removal of approximately 760,000 individuals from Affordable Care Act coverage, as stated by Vice President JD Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz on Tuesday. They cited alleged fraud, claiming that the individuals being removed are either ineligible, unaware of their coverage, or do not exist.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We call them phantoms, because we believe most of them either don’t exist or had no idea they had coverage,” Oz said during a press conference reported by <em><a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/vance-led-task-force-set-to-remove-760-000-allegedly-fraudulent-obamacare-enrollments-0fbb72d7">The Wall Street Journal</a></em>.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Oz further stated, “These are not real people. We’re not paying insurance for nonexistent ghosts.” He justified this assertion by noting that the individuals being removed have never filed a claim, indicating that while they are insured, they have not sought medical care.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The concept of “phantom patients” taking advantage of Affordable Care Act funds is a recurring theme in Republican rhetoric. The Paragon Health Institute, a Republican think tank, has long promoted the notion that patients who do not utilize their coverage must be fraudulent enrollees. However, Cynthia Cox from the health policy research group KFF noted in 2025 that the situation is more nuanced.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We’re not trying to argue there is no fraud. It’s a real thing. But the question is, how big of a scale is this problem?” Cox stated. “Just suggesting that anyone who’s not using health care is a fraudulent enrollee—that’s not true. Plenty of people don’t use health care.” Younger and healthier individuals are often more likely to obtain health insurance, particularly if they can access affordable plans, and may not utilize the coverage unless necessary.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The health care advocacy group Protect Our Care criticized Vance and Oz’s task force, describing it as a “smokescreen” for efforts to reduce coverage for actual individuals.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“This so-called task force is nothing more than a distraction—a political stunt designed to throw even more people off their coverage while pretending to save taxpayers’ money,” said Protect Our Care president Brad Woodhouse. “At a time when millions of Americans are already losing coverage and facing skyrocketing costs, Vance and this administration are making the crisis exponentially worse.”</p>