The number going around is real. On Aug. 31, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services canceled about 315,000 Obamacare enrollments covering more than 760,000 people. CMS says each one was confirmed “unauthorized” and expects to claw back about $2.2 billion in subsidies already paid.
What the number is not matters just as much.
It is not a new rule. CMS says it acted under its “existing process for unauthorized enrollments,” working with insurers. No regulation was published for it. The 2025 Marketplace Integrity rule, which people often blame, did change income checks, re-enrollment and sign-up periods, but it did not cancel anyone’s plan on its own.
It is not a subsidy cutoff. The bigger pandemic-era tax credits ended because Congress let them expire at the end of 2025. That is a separate hit to a separate group of people.
The 760,000 are people, the 315,000 are plans. One enrollment can cover a whole family. Some officials have cited 750,000. CMS’s own pages say “more than 760,000.”
What the record leaves out. The CMS fact sheet and press release do not say what made an enrollment “unauthorized,” how many people appealed, how many were put back, or how many were left with no coverage at all. CMS also says it has issued termination notices to more than 200 agents and brokers since January. Health policy researchers writing in Health Affairs have questioned how the cancellations were done. Neither side has published the case-by-case evidence.
The courts are a separate fight. A federal judge in Maryland stayed seven parts of the 2025 rule in August 2025 and threw out parts of it in June 2026. The government has appealed to the Fourth Circuit.
If you were on a marketplace plan and got a cancellation notice, contact HealthCare.gov and ask in writing why. Fraud is worth stopping. A government that cancels 760,000 people should be able to show its work.