Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that the department is suspending over $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota due to suspected fraud.
"We are not sending Medicaid dollars out the door until we have confidence that they are being spent lawfully and appropriately," Kennedy stated at a press briefing. He indicated that for California Governor Gavin Newsom and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to receive the funds intended for low-income healthcare, they must provide documentation verifying the legitimacy of these payments.
Kennedy attributed the alleged misuse of taxpayer funds to the Biden administration and Democratic leadership in both states. He criticized what he described as a dismantling of program integrity and oversight, stating, "Instead of protecting your money, they open the floodgates to theft."
This action is part of a broader initiative by the Trump administration aimed at combating waste, fraud, and abuse within federal programs. In a related development last month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that 455 individuals had been charged in connection with healthcare fraud schemes totaling $6.5 billion. Federal officials characterized this as the largest combined federal and state effort in history to combat healthcare fraud, with charges brought against individuals accused of using taxpayer-funded programs to support extravagant lifestyles.