On June 29, 2025, speaking on Fox News, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said the following about Obamacare:

AND WHAT WE HAVE NOW LEARNED, AND I'LL JUST GIVE YOU THE NUMBERS, HISTORICALLY, OBAMACARE HAD 9 MILLION PEOPLE ON IT. 9 MILLION PEOPLE. THIS YEAR OVER 23 MILLION PEOPLE APPARENTLY SIGNED UP. BUT OF THE PEOPLE WHO SIGNED UP, 40% NEVER USED THE INSURANCE.

SO IT RAISES AGAIN THAT REALITY THAT THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE SIGNED UP WHO ARE GETTING PAID FOR, DON'T BELIEVE THEY HAVE THE INSURANCE. DON'T KNOW THEY HAVE INSURANCE, BUT THEY DON'T WANT THE INSURANCE, AND THESE BROKERS ARE ABLE TO MAKE A TON OF MONEY OFF THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER.

SO OF COURSE, THE DEMOCRATS ARE ARGUING AGGRESSIVELY THAT ANY PEOPLE WHO LEAVE OBAMACARE IS ONLY HAPPENING BECAUSE OF THE PREMIUM SUBSIDIES THAT WERE PUT IN PLACE FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME DURING COVID BY THE DEMOCRATS. THAT'S NOT RIGHT. THE REALITY IS WE HAVE A LOT OF FAKE PEOPLE ON THE POLICIES.

Source:

"Dr. Mehmet Oz: This is a MASSIVE problem". YouTube. Retrieved 2026-07-04.

Commentary:

This is the third time I've posted about statements made by Dr. Oz.

On Jun 4, 2026, I posted an article entitled "Dr. Mehmet Oz Responds to Reporter's Question about "Trump Derangement Syndrome"."

On Nov 23, 2025, I posted an article entitled "Op-Ed | Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz Gaslights While Failing Remedial Math."

To put what Oz said in context, his initial claim was that there are at least one million people signed up for Obamacare without social security numbers. He adds to that by saying brokers (who help people get signed up for insurance) are in effect getting paid for signing up non-existent Obamacare enrollees. In other words, it's a fraud scheme. If that's in fact the case, obviously it needs to investigated and fixed.

Then, Oz makes three questionable statements.

First, he says that historically, Obamacare enrollment has been 9 million people.

That's not correct, and it's not even close.

According to KFF (the leading health policy organization in the U.S.), Obamacare enrollment fluctuated between 11 million and 12 million from 2015 to 2021, then increased from 14.5 million in 2016 to 24.3 million in 2025. Enrollment in 2026 dropped to 19.2 million (according to a June 26, 2026 report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

That's a "far cry" from being "historically" 9 million.

Oz lied.

Second, Oz says that 40% of Obamacare enrollees (for 2026) never used their insurance. Oz is implying that because so many enrollees never used their insurance, that's indication of fraud.

Remember that Oz previously said that at least one million people might be fraudulently signed up for Obamacare because they have no social security numbers. The thinking is that those one million, because they probably don't in fact exist and were just made up, fake accounts so brokers could make a quick buck, would not be using the insurance. OK, but that only accounts for one million of his 40%. Doing the math, 40% of 23 million is 9.2 million. What about the other 8.2 million?

Oz doesn't say anything about this other 8.2 million.

Oz doesn't say anything about the fact that many people with health insurance don't use their insurance because they haven't had any health issues requiring them to use it.

Think about all of the young enrollees who, compared to older people, are generally more healthy.

Think about all of those who enroll just to have catastrophic coverage.

The majority of enrollees in these two groups would have little or need to use their health insurance.

Oz doesn't mention any of that because it negates his argument.

Third, Oz slams Democrats for attributing the decrease in Obamacare enrollment to the end of the Obamacare subsidies by the Trump administration. He says "That's not right." He follow that by reiterating his belief that there are a lot of "fake people" on Obamacare.

Oz says "That's not right" but he doesn't give any alternative reason for the decline in enrollment.

Apparently, Oz believes in analysis reported on June 3, 2026 by the Paragon Health Institute which summarizes their findings as follows:

Our analysis suggests that a significant share of the coming decline will reflect the removal of duplicate, improper, and phantom enrollment rather than the loss of legitimate coverage.

The entire report is 49 pages long. You can read it here.

An NPR article entitled "5 million have dropped ACA insurance after Trump and the GOP let prices skyrocket" sheds more light on this.

I didn't read the entire Paragon report so I can't really comment on the analysis, but it's certainly plausible to believe that a significant number of people who dropped Obamacare did so because the premiums became too expensive without the subsidies.

Oz should have at least made mention of this report, if in fact that's where he's getting his information. But like Trump and everyone else in his administration, providing legitimate evidence to back up what is said rarely happens.

It's important to note that Oz makes a big deal about Obamacare fraud. By doing this, he has his viewers (the vast majority of which are Trump/MAGA) already on his side, so anything else he says that might not be true or correct doesn't even matter to his listeners. They've already heard what they wanted to hear, in this case that there is fraud going on related to Obamacare, and nothing else really matters.

Let's zoom out for a moment. Trump and his sycophants have been railing against Obamacare since it's inception, but they haven't offered up a reasonable, cost-effective alternative. Instead, they prefer to keep complaining and ridiculing Obamacare, because doing that is a lot easier than coming up with another viable solution.

You may have noticed that Trump/MAGA sycophants always speak with deep conviction and righteousness. To the untrained and gullible eye, they make very convincing arguments. They know that the vast majority of people spend little, if any time verifying what they hear from the mouths of politicians and government officials. If you're a Trump/MAGA Republican, then you accept most everything you hear that supports your preexisting belief system (if you're a staunch Democrat, the same applies).

With the entry of Donald Trump into American politics about 10 years ago, our historically robust political discourse has been turned upside down. Now, people like Oz say all kinds of things that aren't true. But the only way the average person will know that is by doing a little research and by applying a bit of critical thinking.