HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hundreds of thousands of Americans are being kicked off their Obamacare health plans, after the Trump administration accused them of fraud.
The state DCCA’s Insurance Division says more than 23,000 Hawaii residents are covered by Obamacare or Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace plans this year, which are sold by two carriers: HMSA and Kaiser Permanente. HMSA says it has about 18,000 enrollees.
Unlike bigger states, Hawaii’s marketplace is run entirely on the federal exchange Healthcare.gov, so the state doesn’t manage enrollment. It’s not clear how many of Hawaii’s enrollees are caught up in this national fraud sweep.
“We do not get forewarned of these things, so we are Informed with the general public and you know immediately we try to spring into action to make sure that we can do whatever assessments we need to make,“ said Joseph Campos II, director of…
These frauds exploit emotional vulnerability and trust rather than technical weaknesses.
- Romance Scams: Scammers build long-term online relationships with victims, eventually fabricating a “crisis” (medical emergency, legal trouble, or travel costs) that requires the victim to send money.
- Pig Butchering: A hybrid scam where the criminal builds a romantic or platonic relationship to eventually “tutor” the victim in a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment.