LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act into law to help lower healthcare costs, among other things, for Americans.
There have been no updates to the act in 2024, but ads offering no-cost healthcare and a $6,400 government subsidy are still making the rounds online, leaving many wondering if they're legit or too good to be true.
Subsidies are financial benefits given by a government to individuals or entities as an additional allowance for everyday spending.
A quick search online turns up social media post after post directing users to websites claiming to offer free health insurance and government subsidies— but we can verify that those ads are not legitimate.
According to Reuters, one Facebook post under the name Harmony Wilder, an account that’s still active, tries to convince users how easy it is to apply and get a $6,400 subsidy in just one week.
But that link and many others claiming to offer free health insurance and the subsidy direct users to third-party insurance companies, unaffiliated with the government.
In fact, the Verify team searched online for major insurance companies plus a "$6,400 allowance" and could not find a single plan that included a subsidy.
The Better Business Bureau and the Kaiser Family Foundation did similar searches and found the same results.
The original Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Biden does not include a $6,400 personal subsidy for all Americans.
So we can verify that no, websites and social media posts offering free insurance and subsidies up to $6,400 are not real, and are more likely hoping to redirect you to a third party to try and gain your personal information.
The federal government is aware of online scams like this and has an official website with resources the public can use to search for actual federal assistance programs. You can find the link here.
Let us know if there's something you'd like THV 11 to verify by sending an email to verify@thv11.com' or a message on Facebook.