In June, new rules kicked in that require brokers to get policyholders’ written or recorded verbal consent before making changes, although brokers said they are rarely asked for those documents.

Finding Out the Hard Way

Some unwitting enrollees, like Michael Debriae, a restaurant server who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, not only end up in plans they didn’t choose but also bear a tax burden.

That happens when enrollees are signed up for coverage that includes premium tax credits paid by the government to insurers, even though the enrollee is ineligible, either because their income was misstated by the broker making the switch, or they had job-based insurance, like Debriae.

Unbeknownst to him, an agent in Florida with whom he had never spoken enrolled him in an ACA plan in March 2023. It was two months after he canceled his Obamacare coverage because he was able to get health insurance through his job. In June, he discovered he had a new ACA policy when his longtime pharmacy said it could not fill a 90-day prescription, which it had done with no problem in the past.

“That’s when I realized something horribly wrong had happened,” said Debriae.

Debriae got contact information for the Florida broker, but when he called, the office said the agent no longer worked there. He filed a complaint with the federal marketplace and canceled the plan. But he still owed the IRS part of the $2,445 in premium tax credits paid to the insurer from March until July on his behalf.

To be sure, some switches could be legitimate, when enrollees choose a different broker or plan. And agents do have a vested interest in raising the issue. They lose out on commissions when their clients are switched by other agents. But brokers whose clients have been switched through unauthorized transactions say the real losers are consumers.

“ People literally losing their plans is fraud, absolute fraud, not a squabble between agents,” said Leslie Shields, an insurance broker in Fort Worth, Texas.

Patients’ new plans might not include their doctors or might come with higher deductibles than their former coverage. Because the agent on the policy is generally switched, too, enrollees don’t know whom to call for help.

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