WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) expressed concern today surrounding the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG)reports revealing the Obama Administration’s inability to put safeguards in place to protect taxpayers and prevent incorrect ObamaCare subsidy payments.

Today’s report found that HHS was unable to resolve 2.6 million of 2.9 million verification inconsistencies because the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) eligibility system was not fully operational. Congress passed a law – which Blunt voted for – requiring the HHS OIG to issue a report by July 1, 2014, evaluating the effectiveness of safeguards to prevent improper payments. 

“These reports are very troubling. Americans deserve to know how the federal government spends their hard-earned dollars – and whether their money is being misused on wasteful and fraudulent ObamaCare payments,” said Blunt. 

In January 2014, then-HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius certified to Congress that the ObamaCare exchanges could verify that individuals receiving tax credits and cost-sharing assistance are actually eligible to receive taxpayer-provided subsidies. She also detailed a number of measures that were supposed to be in place to protect the taxpayer.

Read the HHS OIG reports here and here, and the letters to Congress here.