Telemarketer scam signs victims up for fake 'jobs.'
This webcast was launched on Wednesday, August 13, 2025 in KFF Health News.
With Dan Weissmann
When a New York couple purchased a health insurance plan from a telemarketer, they thought it covered everything they wanted: doctor visits, tests, and medicine. But then came the unexpected bills for thousands of dollars, forcing them to skip crucial medical care.
In their series "Health Care Hustlers," Bloomberg reporters Zachary Mider and Zeke Faux revealed how this couple and thousands of other people signed up for health plans by unknowingly agreeing to work fake "jobs."
Mider and Faux join "An Arm and a Leg" host Dan Weissmann to peel back the surprising layers of this story, from a TV-sitcom-writer-turned-investor who masterminded the idea to the legal gray area that allows these plans to proliferate.
KFF Health News is a national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.