8 states spent $1.8 BILLION from Medicaid on illegal immigrants: Mehmet Oz

The Trump administration has uncovered that $1.8 billion in Medicaid funds have been going to illegal immigrants across eight different states in the US. The point was highlighted by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz. The states include California, Illinois, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, as well as others. 

In a post to X, Oz stated, "In October, we flagged $1.3 billion in Medicaid funds that 6 states may have unlawfully spent on health care for illegal immigrants. 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."

"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. 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," Oz added.

Oz also stated that $1.3 billion in federal dollars was spent in California "to take care of illegal immigrants. "The state is giving that money back. We will collect the rest of it, and we're continuing to audit quarterly the state Medicaid system to identify when patients who are legally here are taken care of without emergency situations. Emergencies are different, but when you come for elective herding operations or dental cleaning, that's not going to be paid for by the Federal taxpayer. It's not right."

Oz said in Los Angeles County alone, there has been a seven-fold increase in the number of people on hospice. "That doesn't happen naturally. There is not seven times more deaths in LA County than there were five years ago," he added.