Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz revealed on Tuesday that his agency has identified now $2 billion in fraudulent healthcare payments that have been given to illegal aliens.
“The number has doubled from what I said last year. We’re about $2 billion,” he told The Gateway Pundit during a White House press briefing, adding that some states are cracking down on the fraud.
“The good news is that many states realize this is a problem, and they themselves have stopped doing this.”
“Some states don’t do as good a job as other states. That’s why we’re looking to individual states for leadership, for better ideas, to deal with many of these social problems that unfortunately begin to pile up over time. And they threaten the very foundation of our social net that supports all of us,” he added.
Oz further touted Vice President JD Vance’s work in exposing the fraud for criminal referral with his White House anti-fraud task force. While speaking at an anti-fraud roundtable with state attorneys general and White House officials last month, Vance revealed staggering numbers his team had discovered, including over $22 billion in fraudulent small business loans, more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements, $6.3 billion in suspected fraudulent government contracts, and $60 million in student aid fraud.
“He’s taking this seriously. He’s going at it and he’s doing what’s best for the American people by making some tough decisions,” Oz said of Vance.
WATCH:
Conradson: Last October, you announced that you had found over $1 billion in federal tax dollars going to illegal aliens. How much money, how much has that amount increased as of today?
Oz: The number has doubled from what I said last year. We’re about $2 billion. The good news is that many states realize this is a problem and they themselves have stopped doing this. Listen, it’s the same basic story again and again. We, as a nation, make a decision because we’re one people. Individual states have to take that decision and use it to the best of their ability. Some states don’t do as good a job as other states. That’s why we’re looking to individual states for leadership, for better ideas, to deal with many of these social problems that unfortunately begin to pile up over time. And they threaten the very foundation of our social net that supports all of us.
That’s why this matters so much. If you quiz the Vice President, he grew up in an environment where he saw people abuse this. I know that’s the case of people who are on the task force right now, the anti-fraud White House task force. So, there’s a passion about this and for good reason. And the President calls the Vice President, Eliot Ness. He wants him — you know, he likes the fact that he’s taking this seriously. He’s going at it and he’s doing what’s best for the American people by making some tough decisions.
Oz further told reporters that California alone owes $2 billion to the federal government for giving illegal aliens full coverage, including dental and vision benefits through Medicaid. “We’ve actually told California they owe us $2 billion. We’ve got half of it back already, but I’m confident we’ll get the rest,” Oz said.
“Just to put it in context, in California, if you’re on Medi-Cal, the Medicaid program in California, until this administration, you got full dental and full vision benefits,” he added. “Now, I’m for those benefits, I like them, but we don’t give that to Medicare patients. So we should at least be equitable, and all of us together should decide what we are going to do as a nation.”
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As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Oz previously revealed in October that CMS had identified “more than a billion dollars” in fraudulent healthcare funding for illegal aliens.
“A billion dollars paid by U.S. taxpayers for illegal immigrants in about half a dozen states. We’re just getting started—it’s going to be significantly more money than that,” Oz said.
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