WASHINGTON — CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz stepped up to the Affordable Care Act counter this week and delivered the only policy line America still understands: “No insurance for you.”
Beside Vice President JD Vance at a White House anti-fraud rollout, Oz said about 760,000 marketplace enrollees will lose coverage because many were improperly signed up — or never existed. Officials called them “phantom enrollees.” Oz treated them like customers who asked for bread with the soup.
Vance said canceling roughly 315,000 enrollments covering those people would save taxpayers $2.2 billion. Oz noted that more than a million applications lacked Social Security numbers. Going forward, prove you are real or lose the non-care. Another 419,000 get “additional verification.” Brokers get a six-month freeze for manufacturing the ghosts.
The rules are simple: take a number, show ID, do not question the ladle. Use too little care and you may be imaginary. Hesitate at the counter and Oz has already pointed at the door.
Democrats called it callous. Analysts wanted process details. Oz wanted order. At press time, a line of translucent former patients was still waiting for chicken noodle and a plan. Oz did not ladle. He pointed. “No insurance for you.”
