It shouldn’t be too much to ask that taxpayer-funded social service programs benefit people who actually exist.
Apparently it is, as more than 1 million people enrolled in Obamacare plans lack Social Security numbers, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.
As the New York Post reported, that’s “a glaring warning sign for fraud” across the Obamacare program, Kennedy said, blaming President Trump’s predecessors for not maintaining proper guardrails in social safety net programs.
The guardrails are wonky in a few areas.
Last week, the Justice Department announced the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown yielded charges against 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud and opioid abuse schemes…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.