A lawyer for the victims says that companies such as Health Insurance Innovations and Simple Heath are victimizing the very people the Affordable Care Act had been designed to protect.

A federal class action lawsuit has accused two Tampa-based health care companies of defrauding customers out of millions of dollars by misrepresenting the benefits of their insurance policies.

A complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida on Friday named Health Insurance Innovations Inc. and Health Plan Intermediaries Holdings LLC as defendants in a four-count lawsuit. The charges against the businesses include allegations of racketeering as well as aiding and abetting fraud in addition to unjust enrichment.

The plaintiffs, Elizabeth Belin and Christopher Mitchell, are being represented by attorneys Jason Kellogg and Jason Doss. According to the attorneys, the defendants unlawfully led customers to believe that the limited-benefit indemnity and medical discount plans they were offering provided the full range of medical benefits included with traditional health insurance. Kellogg, a partner with Levine Kellogg Lehman Schneider + Grossman in Miami, said the class action began with a lawsuit against South Florida company Simple Health Plans in October 2018 by the Federal Trade Commission.