{"id":9179,"date":"2026-04-17T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/trump-says-hes-going-after-medicaid-fraud-but-is-mostly-focusing-on-blue-states\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:00:25","slug":"trump-says-hes-going-after-medicaid-fraud-but-is-mostly-focusing-on-blue-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/trump-says-hes-going-after-medicaid-fraud-but-is-mostly-focusing-on-blue-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he\u2019s going after Medicaid fraud, but is mostly focusing on blue states"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Vice
\n

Vice President JD Vance speaks during a news briefing in the White House briefing room in January. The Trump administration is taking aim at what it calls rampant fraud in state Medicaid programs, but has focused mostly on Democratic-led states. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced that Vance would lead the anti-fraud effort. (Photo by Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Trump administration is taking aim at what it calls rampant fraud in state Medicaid programs. But by focusing almost exclusively on Democratic-led states, it has handed ammunition to critics who say it mainly wants to embarrass its political enemies, not save taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n

In announcing earlier this month that Vice President JD Vance would lead the administration\u2019s anti-fraud effort, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social<\/a> that Vance would focus on fraud \u201c\u2018EVERYWHERE,\u2019 but primarily in those Blue States where CROOKED DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS, like those in California, Illinois, Minnesota (Somalia beware!), Maine, New York, and many others, have had a \u2018free for all\u2019 in the unprecedented theft of Taxpayer Money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four of the five states the Trump administration is targeting, at least initially, are led by Democrats: California<\/a>, Maine<\/a>, Minnesota<\/a> and New York<\/a>. (The one Republican-led state is Florida.) <\/a>But fraud involving government benefits isn\u2019t any more prevalent in Democratic-led states than in Republican-led ones, according to federal data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Minnesota, which has been a particular focus of the president\u2019s ire, Attorney General Keith Ellison said the administration\u2019s goal is to \u201cmake a political point about it and try to assign blame, as opposed to fixing the real problem in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish we could get a partner. We used to have one, and it didn\u2019t matter what the party affiliation of the federal government was,\u201d added Ellison, a Democrat. \u201cWe all understood we had to protect the public dollar on behalf of low-income and economically struggling people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indisputably, fraud is a long-standing problem: Across all its programs, the federal government loses hundreds of billions of dollars each year to fraud, according to the Government Accountability Office<\/a>. Medicaid Fraud Control Units, which operate in all 50 states, recovered $2 billion<\/a> in fraudulent payments and obtained 856 fraud convictions in fiscal year 2025.<\/p>\n

The $1.3 billion the fraud units recovered in criminal cases was the highest in a decade, though much of that came from a single Virginia case. And the total is just a fraction of the roughly $920 billion that states and the federal government spent on Medicaid in fiscal 2024.<\/p>\n

Ann Maxwell, deputy inspector general in the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said the location and scope of fraudulent activity varies from year to year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are always new people spending all their time and energy thinking about how they can defraud federal programs,\u201d Maxwell said. \u201cAnd so then it pops up in a different state or in a different provider group, and that comes to our attention, and we work to bring that down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Pigott, a former U.S. attorney for the southern district of Mississippi who tried health care fraud cases during his tenure, said there is no link between geography and fraudulent activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the work of fighting federal program fraud throughout the decades has proven that whether a provider or beneficiary is willing to perpetrate fraud has nothing to do with where they live, or with the demographics of where they live,\u201d Pigott told Stateline. \u201cMuch less does that have anything to do with which political party governs their state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking aim at Minnesota<\/h4>\n

In January, the administration announced<\/a> the creation of a new division for national fraud enforcement in the Department of Justice. In making the move, it cited a sprawling scandal in Minnesota involving the possible theft of billions of federal dollars.<\/p>\n

Since 2018, according to a federal prosecutor, fraudsters likely stole half or more<\/a> of the roughly $18 billion that supported 14 Medicaid-funded child care, child nutrition, housing and autism programs in the state. The Trump administration has emphasized the fact that 82 of the 92 defendants in the Minnesota schemes are Somali Americans. Trump has called Somalis<\/a> in Minnesota \u201cgarbage,\u201d and used their presence as a pretext for the administration\u2019s forceful immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, even though the overwhelming majority of Somalis are American citizens.<\/a><\/p>\n

In February, the administration said it would hold back<\/a> $259.5 million in federal Medicaid payments to Minnesota \u201cto prevent payment of questionable claims while further investigation is completed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do what any honest and patient-focused agency would do. We have notified the state that we will give them the money, but we\u2019re going to hold it and only release it after they propose and act on a comprehensive corrective action plan to solve the problem,\u201d Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said<\/a> at the White House in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Minnesota fails to clean up the systems, the state will rack up a billion dollars of deferred payments this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minnesota has sued <\/a>to get the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need the federal government to tell us that fraud is a bad thing,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cWe prosecute it. We have been prosecuting it. We will continue to prosecute it. I\u2019m seeking more resources with the state legislature to prosecute it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the administration has expanded its focus to other Democratic-led states.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
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We don’t need the federal government to tell us that fraud is a bad thing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u2013 Minnesota Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In an early March letter <\/a>to New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and an accompanying social media video, <\/a>Oz wrongly claimed that the state\u2019s Medicaid program paid for personal care services \u2014 help with basic activities such as meal preparation, bathing and grooming \u2014 for 5 million people, or nearly three-fourths of the 6.9 million New Yorkers enrolled in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat level of utilization is unheard of,\u201d Oz said in the video. In the post, he demanded that New York \u201ccome clean about its Medicaid program.\u201d<\/p>\n

But last week, CMS spokesperson Chris Krepich acknowledged to The Associated Press<\/a> that the agency had erred in examining New York\u2019s billing codes: The actual number of New Yorkers receiving personal care services is 450,000.<\/p>\n

Krepich said the agency still has concerns about how much New York is spending per beneficiary, and that its Medicaid program is paying for too many personal care aides. Health experts say that\u2019s largely because such services are expensive in New York, and the state has made a decision to provide more in-home care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really clear New York has chosen, within federal rules and as a policy choice, to provide long-term care through home care and Medicaid. That\u2019s our right as a state,\u201d said Michael Kinnucan, health policy director at the Fiscal Policy Institute, a progressive think tank in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could have gone and said, \u2018Look, we don\u2019t think all these states should be providing home care. We think it\u2019s too expensive. We want to cut it.\u2019 They didn\u2019t do that because it would have been extremely unpopular,\u201d Kinnucan said. \u201cNow I think what they\u2019re doing is trying to achieve that policy objective essentially through executive action, by making unfounded allegations of widespread fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center, a conservative-leaning think tank in New York, agreed with CMS that New York\u2019s per-enrollee spending is unreasonably high.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many reasons to be suspicious about the way New York uses its Medicaid money, and it\u2019s needed some kind of oversight for a long time,\u201d Hammond said. \u201cSo that\u2019s not to defend every last piece of how the federal government\u2019s handling this, but I\u2019m still holding out hope that this will be a useful and constructive process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where there is money, there is fraud<\/h4>\n

Medicaid is so large and involves so much money, it is inevitable that there will be bad actors and there will be fraudulent activity, said Summer McKeivier, a Los Angeles lawyer who represents clients accused of committing health care fraud. But McKeivier said the existence of fraud doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the program is broken or that there is widespread criminal activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue there is that the federal government and state government, in my opinion, are what I would consider the biggest loan sharks that we have in the world. Basically, they always want their money back,\u201d McKeivier said. She said Medicaid is so complicated, it\u2019s easy for providers to misinterpret the rules, overbill or mistake whether certain services are covered or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real problem, the overarching problem with both programs (Medicaid and Medicare), is that they are highly complicated and constantly evolving and changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKeivier said the Trump administration\u2019s fraud effort puts the cart before the horse, since misspending is not fraud until it is proven to be so in court.<\/p>\n

But Brian Blase, president of the Paragon Health Institute, a conservative policy group that advises congressional Republicans, said any hint of fraud should trigger an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe programs are massive, and because they\u2019re massive, and it\u2019s people spending other people\u2019s money, they\u2019re loaded with waste, fraud and abuse,\u201d Blase said. \u201dWhat we\u2019re seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Schneider, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, said curbing overall Medicaid spending \u2014 not just waste, fraud and abuse \u2014 is the administration\u2019s real goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see how fraud is an attractive political message for them,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a longer game here, though, beyond the midterms and regardless of the outcome of the midterms, and it has to do with capping federal payments to states for Medicaid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at schatlani@stateline.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

This story was originally produced by Stateline<\/a>, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Missouri Independent, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vice President JD Vance speaks during a news briefing in the White House briefing room in January. The Trump administration is taking aim at what it calls rampant fraud in state Medicaid programs, but has focused mostly on Democratic-led states. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced that Vance would lead the anti-fraud effort. 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The Trump administration is taking aim at what it calls rampant fraud in state Medicaid programs, but has focused mostly on Democratic-led states. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced that Vance would lead the anti-fraud effort. 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