Sanders Leads Probe of Insurers in Coverage Terminations

US Sen. Bernie Sanders and 12 Democratic colleagues are examining what role private insurers played in the Trump administration's removal of about 760,000 Affordable Care Act enrollees. The lawmakers sent letters on Monday to the chief executives of 10 insurance companies asking when the administration first contacted them about its anti-fraud effort and what steps they took to make sure eligible enrollees were not affected.

The letters name Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, AmeriHealth Caritas, Centene, Elevance, Florida Blue, Health Care Service Corporation, Imperial Insurance Companies, Oscar Health, and Molina Healthcare. The senators wrote that the 10 largest insurers in the ACA marketplaces received a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data request and complied with it voluntarily. The letters call those requests potentially unlawful.

The senators said the 760,000 terminations "would not have been possible without the cooperation of insurance companies that have been quietly colluding with the Trump administration" over months. They wrote that nearly 3 million people have lost coverage this year. They also wrote that millions more face higher premiums and higher deductibles for plans that cover less.

The letters state that some issuers, including Cigna, sent enrollees messages asking them to verify Social Security numbers. The senators wrote that issuers then gave CMS lists of enrollees who did not respond to that outreach. Those people were labeled presumptively fraudulent and had coverage terminated retroactively, effective Aug. 31, 2026. The letters also state that enrollees were flagged based on factors such as whether projected income qualified them for tax credits covering the full premium, and whether they used care during the 2026 plan year.

The senators wrote that no credible research supports the idea that zero-dollar premium plans and zero-claims enrollment are reliable indicators of fraud. KFF Health News reported earlier this month that CMS has reinstated a small number of people whose coverage should not have been canceled. The letters contrast the insurers' cooperation with the Trump administration against their refusal last year to expand outreach to ACA enrollees at Democrats' request, with insurers citing cost, complexity, and the risk of losing enrollees to competitors.

Sanders leads the group of 13 Democratic senators. The letters ask the 10 executives to explain their role in the CMS data request and what they did to protect eligible enrollees from termination.