CMS Cancelled Coverage for 760,000 People and Froze New Brokers for 2027 Over Unauthorized Enrollments

CMS said on 22 September 2026 that it is cancelling about 315,000 unauthorized enrollments in the Federal Marketplace covering more than 760,000 people, and expects about $2.2bn in taxpayer-funded subsidies to be returned. It has also set up an anti-fraud coordination group across CMS and HHS.
Since January 2026, CMS has issued termination notices to more than 200 agents and brokers. This summer it sent 569 notices of intent to terminate to brokers who submitted 2026 applications without key applicant information, such as Social Security numbers.
CMS says brokers who first registered for the 2026 plan year are a small fraction of broker-assisted enrollment but a disproportionate share of unauthorized enrollments. An interim final rule imposes a temporary moratorium on new broker registration for 2027 for anyone without an active 2026 exchange agreement.
All existing brokers must re-verify their identity through Login.gov or ID.me, broker-assisted applications must carry verifiable Social Security or immigration document numbers for non-newborn applicants, and brokers need electronic consumer authorization before acting on an application. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the agency is holding agents and brokers accountable when they break the rules.

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CMS frames this as fraud recovery, and the broker measures are specific. The release says much less about the people whose coverage ends.

The release does not say what happens to the 760,000. It gives no breakdown of how many knew they were enrolled, used the coverage or can re-enrol on their own. The new requirement for consumer authorization before a broker acts suggests the core problem was brokers acting without consent, which would make many of those losing coverage the subjects of the fraud rather than its authors.
The subsidy figure is large per person. Roughly $2.2bn across 760,000 people is about $2,900 each, over a period the release does not specify. Against the 23.1 million people CMS reported enrolled in exchange coverage for 2026, the cancellations equal about 3%.
The moratorium freezes entry, not only bad actors. Any broker without an active 2026 exchange agreement is barred from registering for 2027, whatever its record. That targets the cohort CMS says drove the problem, and it also hands the 2027 open enrollment to incumbent brokers.

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