In 2025, the year the administration restored its checks for people holding two kinds of coverage, it ended duplicate Obamacare subsidies for approximately 551,000 enrollees who were already receiving coverage under Medicaid. That first-year number comes from an October 14 HHS release that also reports a 2026 count of 189,000. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz says the savings so far total nearly $6 billion.
What 551,000 people had at the same time
Each of the 551,000 held a subsidized Obamacare plan and Medicaid at once. The subsidy was the duplicate, so it was the part that ended, and the Medicaid coverage stayed. The release is specific that this first-year group was on Medicaid, unlike the 2026 group, which also takes in Medicare, CHIP and deceased enrollees.
The rules on overlap are older than the crackdown. Two kinds of coverage at once is not forbidden, but it is not subsidized: HealthCare.gov puts the duty to end the Marketplace plan on the enrollee once Medicaid begins, and warns that keeping both can cost a child CHIP eligibility. Whoever stays on both pays the Marketplace premium in full.
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The four-year pause that came first
The release says the Biden administration paused checks for duplicate Medicaid and Obamacare coverage for four years, and that the current administration restored them in 2025. That is why 2025 counts as the first year of restored enforcement rather than the first year the rule existed.
“When it comes to program integrity, the Biden Administration was sleeping on the job,” Oz said in the release. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. added, “Taxpayers should not foot the bill for duplicate coverage or subsidies for people who have died.”
The release says federal regulations require exchanges to examine data periodically for people enrolled in both Medicaid and Obamacare. It puts the minimum for Medicaid and CHIP matching at twice a year.
What the savings figures do and do not say
HHS headlined the release as the second year of savings, which makes 2025 the baseline. The 2026 count of 189,000 is smaller than 551,000, but it counts a different mix of people, so the two numbers are not a trend line.
“We’ve already saved nearly $6 billion,” Oz said. The release does not break that figure into years. For the 2026 group alone it projects approximately $1.5 billion in potential savings over the next year, which is a saving to taxpayers and not money paid to any household.
The 2026 process is where a person has a say. The 189,000 flagged this year get 30 days to dispute the record, and the release says they can still appeal afterward or show that Medicaid or CHIP coverage is about to lapse to regain subsidies. Nothing in the release says the 2025 group was offered the same window.
CMS has also tied duplicate enrollment to brokers. Its September 22 fact sheet says agents and brokers who first registered for 2026 were 1.4 times as likely as earlier registrants to have enrollments that were also in Medicaid or CHIP. It cited that, with other measures, in announcing a temporary bar on new broker registrations for 2027. The same fact sheet puts those brokers at 2.8 times as likely to have unresolved income verification problems and 2.7 times as likely to be missing Social Security numbers.
That fact sheet’s main action is a separate one. On August 31, CMS canceled about 315,000 enrollments covering more than 760,000 people after confirming they were unauthorized, and it expects about $2.2 billion in advance premium tax credit payments to come back. Those cancellations are not duplicate-coverage cases.
A further proposal announced October 23 would verify certain eligibility details before subsidies are paid, starting with 2028 plans. Currently enrolled people would keep financial help at renewal only if they return each year to confirm certain criteria. Comments run 30 days after Federal Register publication. A voluntary pre-enrollment window would open each August 1, starting August 1, 2027, for 2028 coverage, and people who do not apply for financial help would not be affected.
Which of the two plans is the one to keep?
For a person who held Medicaid and a subsidized plan, the answer in the 2025 group was fixed by the rule: Medicaid is the coverage that remains. That makes Medicaid the plan that cannot lapse. HealthCare.gov says people can apply or re-enroll in Medicaid any time of year, either through a Marketplace application, which passes the information to the state agency, or directly with the state Medicaid office.
The same page says a person denied Medicaid is passed to the Marketplace, which mails a letter about Marketplace coverage, and that people who doubt they qualify on income should apply anyway.
The release does not say how many of the 551,000 still hold Medicaid today. That is the number that shows whether the subsidy ended with a covered person left behind, or with a gap.
Which of the two plans is the one to keep?
With the subsidy gone, Medicaid is the one plan left, and a missed renewal or an unreported change can end it too. A household that had two plans on paper can end up with none.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer has a renewal document checklist and a renewal and reporting calendar, built so the Medicaid date does not slip. It also carries 51 state packs, so the steps match the state that runs the program.
Keep the Medicaid renewal checklist and reporting calendar in the renewal organizer →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
