"Obamacare"

Now, frauds are a way of life, and I have no idea the size of the con business in America, but I'm sure it's in the billions of dollars. But conservatives help put the con in con when they lie, mischaracterize, and basically sow confusion about important policies that affect people's daily lives.

In Illinois, a telemarketer recently sold an elderly woman a fraudulent health insurance plan that supposedly protected her against “death panels,” the state insurance director says.

In Alabama, a con artist has been offering “government health care reform” insurance over the phone in exchange for customers’ bank account numbers, according to the local Better Business Bureau.

And in Kansas, law enforcement authorities are investigating reports of people identifying themselves as government employees and taking payments for “Obamacare” insurance.

Con artists in several states are seizing on the public’s financial struggles and confusion about the recent health care overhaul, the authorities say. So far, the frauds appear to be relatively infrequent and are often no more sophisticated than spam fax messages with blatant misspellings and no company letterhead.

But they have generated warnings from state insurance departments and Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services. The authorities say the elderly and the poor are especially vulnerable to the bogus plans, which have names like Obamacare and Obama Health Plan and promise affordable compliance with the new law. The fraudsters often impersonate insurance agents and government workers.