By the end of September, 115,000 people could lose their insurance coverage
The Obama Administration has warned that as many as 115,000 people in 36 states could lose their health insurance coverage by September 30. This is due to unresolved data problems involving citizenship and immigration status. When insurance exchanges began their open enrollment period last year, millions of people applied for insurance coverage. The government suggests that a portion of these enrollees supplied false or incomplete information when using an exchange. The Department of Health and Human Services has been trying to work with these individuals to make sure they remained insured.
Inconsistencies with income data could affect the insurance costs of 363,000 people
Another 363,000 people could see their insurance costs shift due to issues regarding the income data they shared with exchanges. Some of this information is inconsistent with federal records. This information is used to determine who can receive subsidies from the federal government for their insurance coverage. These subsidies are meant to offset the cost of insurance coverage, making it easier for more people to receive health insurance.
1.6 million people provided inaccurate information when applying for health insurance coverage through exchanges
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, some 1.6 million people had problems with the data they offered to the exchanges they used. This number had dropped recently as the Department of Health and Human Services has worked to resolve the issue. There are several thousand people that have not yet rectified their data problem, however, which could lead to them losing their insurance coverage by the end of the month.
Estimated 2.5 million people provided incomplete or inconsistent information when seeking coverage through their state’s health insurance exchange
More than 8 million people throughout the country enrolled for insurance coverage through exchanges in 2014. Of these, 2.5 million submitted applications that had missing or incomplete information. Some of the information provided did not match the data that is on federal records. Government officials suggest that some information discrepancies could be simple mistakes and not malicious in nature.