While the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare were largely unsuccessful, present regulations permit millions of people to purchase cheap temporary health insurance policies if they are not covered by health insurance at their job. In recent months we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of health insurance scams. Youmail, a company that monitors robocalls and provides a free robocall blocking service for cell phones indicates that the number of health insurance related robocalls reached 409 million calls already this month. The scammers either sell non-existent insurance or, more commonly ask for personal information including Social Security numbers from people who believe they are applying for low cost health insurance and use that information for purposes of identity theft.
TIPS
The insurance exchanges that are affiliated with the Affordable Care Act do not reach out to people by phone or text so anytime you receive such a call or text message you can be confident that it is a scam.  In fact, because it is so easy to “spoof” a telephone call that manipulates your Caller ID to make the call appear legitimate, you should never give personal information to anyone who calls you, texts you or emails you because you just can’t be sure that they are who they say they are.  If you think a call, email or text requesting information might be legitimate, you should call the organization or company purporting to contact you at a telephone number that you know is accurate to find out whether or not the call was legitimate.  As for questions about the Affordable Care Act, go to the official government website https://www.healthcare.gov/  There you will find information upon which you can rely. As for other robocalls offering low cost health insurance, it is important to remember that it is illegal for insurance companies to use robocalls to contact you to seek your business so if you receive such a call, you can be confident that it is a scam.
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