“You have surgeries that can’t happen, providers that can’t be seen, or have been changed,” said Shields.“It’s happened in the past, but now it’s literally the worst I’ve seen.”

Ease of access to policyholders’ accounts on the federal marketplace is a double-edged sword, agents say: It aids enrollment, but also makes it easier to switch plans without consent.

“Those bad eggs now have access to all this private information about an individual,” including household income, Social Security numbers, and dependents, said Joshua Brooker, a broker who follows the issue closely as chair of a marketplace committee for the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals, a trade group.

Complaints gained momentum during the most recent open enrollment period, agents say. One worker in a government office that helps oversee operations of the federal exchange told KFF Health News of personally handling more than 1,200 complaints about unauthorized switches or enrollments in the past three months, averaging about 20 a day. About 30 co-workers are working on similar complaints. It can take multiple days to resolve the most urgent cases, and two to four weeks for those deemed less urgent, the worker said.

Florida, Georgia, and Texas appear to be plan-switching hotbeds, agents say. Florida and Texas officials referred questions to federal regulators. Bryce Rawson, press secretary for the Georgia Department of Insurance, says the state saw no switching complaints last year and has about 30 so far in 2024, a small number but one it is taking seriously: “It’s still an active and ongoing investigation.”

By contrast, states that run their own marketplaces — there are 18 and the District of Columbia that do — have been more successful in thwarting such efforts because they require more information before a policy can be accessed, Brooker said.

In Colorado, for example, customers create accounts on the state’s online market and can choose which brokers have access. Pennsylvania has a similar setup. California sends a one-time password to the consumer, who then gives it to the agent before any changes can be made.

Adding such safeguards to healthcare.gov could slow the enrollment process. Federal regulators are “trying to thread a needle between making sure people can get access to coverage and also providing enough of a barrier to capture anyone who is coming in and acting nefariously,” said Brooker.

How Does It Happen?

Many people have no idea how they were targeted, agents say.

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