Trump Jacked Up Premiums for Millions of Working Families in the Name of Fraud, While Pardoning Over $2 Billion in Health Care Fraud From Convicted White-Collar Fraudsters
In Paragon’s latest report, former Trump insider Brian Blase cried fraud in an attempt to delegitimize the millions of Americans trapped in the growing GOP health care affordability crisis. The real story here is that President Trump and congressional Republicans more than doubled premiums for over 22 million Americans, all to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Now, millions upon millions of Americans, including small business owners, veterans, and farmers, are struggling to afford their health care. One in three Americans is skipping meals or cutting back on essential spending, and one in five who bought insurance on healthcare.gov was forced to drop their coverage after their monthly premiums skyrocketed.
Conveniently missing from the report is any mention of the 850 brokers suspected of fraud that Trump reinstated, or the wealthy businessmen he pardoned who collectively ripped off the American people to the tune of over $2 billion. The current health care affordability crisis is no coincidence — it’s a direct result of the GOP’s sabotage agenda. Democrats’ expansion of Affordable Care Act tax credits drove health care coverage to a historic high. Republicans ripped away those tax credits, hiked costs on working families, and bankrolled tax breaks for the GOP’s wealthy donors, increasing billionaires’ wealth by 30 percent. Here are the facts:
RHETORIC
REALITY
“The enhanced ACA subsidies led to massive fraud.” – Brian Blase, Former Trump Health Policy Advisor and President of the Paragon Health Institute on 11/19/25
Paragon’s own recently published data proves the expansion of ACA tax credits did not drive alleged fraud. After Republicans eliminated the enhanced tax credits, Blase’s own report states there was only a 3.9 percent decline in “improper enrollment.”
Instead of working with Democrats to tackle fraud where it actually exists, among brokers who prey on consumers, President Trump reinstated over 850 agents and brokers suspected of fraud back onto the marketplace without explanation, cut over 200 staff in the office overseeing fraud, and pardoned wealthy businessmen convicted of defrauding Medicaid and Medicare of billions.
“In addition to these eligibility concerns, the data also point to widespread phantom enrollment—enrollees who are fictitious, unaware of their enrollment, or enrolled in other coverage. In 2024, 35 percent of exchange enrollees had no medical claims during the period of their enrollment, and among the low-income enrollees in zero-premium plans with a 94 percent actuarial value, 40 percent had no claims. These percentages were up from 20 percent in 2021.” – Paragon Health Institute, 6/3/2026
The term “phantom enrollee” in reality largely refers to young, healthy enrollees who drive down premiums for everyone. They exist in every insurance plan, private and public, and balance out risk pools. Without people who underutilize their health insurance to balance out the risk pool, plans would not be able to function and pay out claims. A year without health care claims often shows that an enrollee either stayed healthy or only had a few months of coverage, not that their plan was not legitimate.
“Enrollment patterns among many low-income enrollees are inconsistent with normal economic behavior. Large numbers of low-income enrollees selected bronze and gold plans even when silver plans provided dramatically better financial protection with substantially lower deductibles and cost-sharing obligations at little or no additional premium cost. This migration away from silver plans was concentrated in HealthCare.gov states and is highly consistent with intermediary-driven or unauthorized enrollment activity.” – Paragon Health Institute, 6/3/2026
When President Trump and Republicans in Congress eliminated the tax credits in favor of bankrolling tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, they made silver plans completely unaffordable for millions of Americans. Before Republicans gutted the ACA, low-income families could enroll in high-quality silver plans for $0, and middle-class families could afford a silver plan for no more than 8.5 percent of their monthly income.
Experts long predicted that the GOP’s elimination of the enhanced premium tax credits would force millions of Americans to reduce their coverage. By putting comprehensive coverage financially out of reach, Republicans raised the amount people will have to pay out of pocket before insurance kicks in by an average of 37 percent. To make matters worse, the Trump Administration terminated 90 percent of the funding for navigators that helped people weigh their options and enroll in the right plan for their needs.