Feds: Over $1.8 Billion in Medicaid Funds Spent on Health Care for Illegal Aliens in 8 States

Almost $2 billion in potential Medicaid fraud has been uncovered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) across eight states, including the sanctuary state of California, where such funds were instead allegedly spent on healthcare for illegal aliens.

On Wednesday, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz revealed that more than $1.8 billion in Medicaid funding in eight states has been spent on healthcare services for illegal aliens — a violation of federal law.

As a result, CMS will begin withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funds to California, which Oz called “by far the worst offender” regarding the alleged fraud.

“In October, we flagged $1.3 billion in Medicaid funds that 6 states may have unlawfully spent on health care for illegal immigrants,” Oz wrote on X. “Since then, we’ve gathered more data and the total has grown to over $1.8 billion across 8 states.”

“It’s against the law to spend federal Medicaid funds on non-emergency healthcare for illegals. If states use their own money to do it, there needs to be a clear paper trail proving that federal dollars didn’t fund those services,” Oz continued:

These states failed to provide that for this $1.8 billion. So today, CMS is announcing that we’re withholding nearly $300 million from California — which is by far the worst offender — until they demonstrate to our satisfaction that they’re spending that money properly. [Emphasis added]

Medicaid dollars belong to Americans, not illegal immigrants, and we won’t stop until we’ve held rogue states accountable and recovered their misspent funds.
[Emphasis added]

Last month, after it was discovered that billions in federal funds were allegedly defrauded from Medicaid by Somali migrants in Minnesota, Oz warned Gov. Tim Walz (D) that he had 60 days to fix the issue or risk losing federal funds for the state’s Medicaid programs.

“If we’re unsatisfied with the state’s plans or cooperation, we’ll stop paying the federal share of these programs,” Oz told Walz.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.