Can anyone under 65 years old qualify to claim a $6,400 Affordable Care Act benefit through the Texas Relief Act? No, that's not true: There is no government program resembling what is described in a Facebook ad. The application process to see if you qualify to claim a "subsidy card" is not an official government website but a referral service that matches potential customers with insurance companies.
The promotion appeared in a post (archived here) by the Facebook page CashingFit on December 25, 2023, with the caption:
Claim Your ACA State BenefitsFind out how much your qualify for by tapping the'learn more' button below!
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Jan 11 18:02:49 2024 UTC)
There is no 2024 Texas state benefit that provides a $6,400 spending card to people under 65 years old. There have been several acts with the words "Financial Relief Act" in the name, but unrelated to the promises in this ad. There have been an assortment of false promotions offering $6,400 spending cards that have been debunked by Lead Stories (here).
If you do click "Learn More" or on the headline "Last Chance to Claim Your $6400 ACA State Benefits," you end up at https://enrollmentcenterusa.com/aca-texas/. The "Breaking News" headline on the website says, "Texas Announces Financial Relief Act Available To All Residents."
There are several questions to see if you qualify, which include an animated hand indicating the "correct" button to click. It's clear these questions are not inclusive to "all residents." At each step an enthusiastic voice gives encouragement to continue. After confirming that you earn less than $50,000 per year, are not on Medicare or Medicaid and are 18 to 64 years old, the screen (pictured below) appears. The amount of money offered in the subsidy is not $6,400 as promoted earlier on Facebook. Here it is posted as $8,400. The voice says:
Congratulations! You've been prequalified for your $8,400 subsidy. In order to claim your subsidy click the 'call now' button immediately, have a short conversation with one of our licensed agents and instantly get approved for your $8,400 subsidy and $0 health plan. You will receive your subsidy card in the mail within two days of being approved. You can use your $8,400 subsidy for things such as gas, groceries, credit card debt, utilities and other bills. Click the 'call now' button immediately to claim what is rightfully yours.
(Source: enrollmentcenterusa.com/aca-texas screenshot taken on Thu Jan 11 23:55:40 2024 UTC)
The disclaimer, which is partially covered by the congratulations window, reads:
This website is a referral source that provides information and access to a helpline to match consumers with companies that may provide certain insurance coverage to them.
This website does not act as an insurance broker and does not make decisions about insurance coverage that may be available to you.
This website doesn't promise a specific outcome or the results you may achieve by calling the helpline. The helpline is free to call but the services or programs that you pursue may have costs associated with them.
Neither this website nor any of the supplemental insurance plans to which you may be connected are endorsed by the U.S. Government or the federal Medicare program.
The official government websites of the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have pages warning of common scams that prey on people shopping for health insurance at HealthCare.gov, and the Office of the Inspector General at oig.hhs.gov. Aside from the fundamental deceptive promise of a $6,400 benefit, Lead Stories discovered many more points of incongruity in this ad campaign.
The link preview on this Facebook promotion says GOOGLE.COM (pictured below) and the Facebook information "i" is about the technology company Google, but the link directs to https://enrollmentcenterusa.com/aca-texas/. This is a type of deceptive spoofing that misleads the audience about where the link goes.
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Jan 11 18:02:49 2024 UTC)
The URL enrollmentcenterusa.com does not open to a company homepage. The hyperlinked buttons on the Texas promotion page for Privacy Policy, Terms of Service and Contact Us do not open working pages; all simply refresh the page.
The name of the company given on the enrollmentcenterusa.com/aca-texas (archived here) promotion webpage is Consumers Advocate Group LLC with a New Mexico address at 4801 Lang Ave. NE, Ste 110 in Albuquerque. The Better Business Bureau gives a rating of F to this non-BBB-accredited business. In the additional info area, the BBB reports the business did not respond to their 2015 request for the true and correct location of their corporate headquarters.
The page transparency report for the Facebook page CashingFit shows it was created on January 6, 2022, with the name "Harper Underwear." On October 12, 2023, the page name was changed to CashingFit, and the following day stock photos were added for the profile and cover photos, four blog posts about living debt free were posted on October 13, 2023, and there have been no publicly facing posts made to the page since. The page launched ads on Meta platforms in January 2024, all promoting a $6,400 Texas Relief Act state benefit.
The "privacy and legal info" tab on the Facebook page has an extensive disclaimer about third-party insurance products despite nothing on the page indicating that is their business. The disclaimer reads in part:
The Services include the third partiesincorporation of third-party insurance products, brokers, and carriers in the form of an advertisement, insurance quote, online purchase, email, phone call, text message, or any other marketing medium. This serves as notice that you may have third-parties contact you on our behalf.
The Services also include formal quoting, brokering, and transacting of first-and-third-party insurance products. We are a licensed insurance agency.Any quotes, or quote-ranges provided on the Site or over the phone are non-binding. The final insurance policy premium for any policy is determined following application by the underwriting insurance company.
