Vice President JD Vance announced the first moves for the new Trump administration anti-fraud task force on Wednesday, and he has started off with a bang, cutting off over a billion dollars from suspected hospice fraudsters and warning all 50 states to identify Medicare fraudsters or lose still more money.
“Today,” the vice president said May 13, “we are sending across 50 Medicaid programs… letters that will require them to show that they are effectively and aggressively prosecuting Medicaid fraud in their states. And if they do not, if they do not aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud, we are going to turn off the money that goes to these anti-fraud units.”
While Vance represents a Republican administration, and everyone on stage with him was a “proud Republican.” Anyone who thinks “this is purely a red state or blue state issue” is wrong. “We see Medicaid fraud issues in Ohio, the state that I used to represent in the… United States Senate, we also see Medicaid issues, fraud issues in a state like Maryland, which is obviously a very blue state. But both Ohio and Maryland have worked with us to take this issue seriously. They’ve worked with the guys behind me, they’ve worked with our entire team, to make sure that they take fraud seriously,” Vance added.
.@VP on stopping rampant fraud:
“You may think of this as purely a red state or blue state issue. That’s actually not true […] This is just basic good government […]
We want to protect Medicaid. We want to protect Medicare. But we can’t do that if the states that are… pic.twitter.com/E57IDJMGAQ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 13, 2026
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He emphasized, “Again, this does not have to be a red state or a blue state issue. This is just basic good government. However, states like California, states like Hawaii, states like New York, have completely not taken the fraud issue seriously in the Medicaid program. And so for those states that refuse to get serious about fraud, we are going to turn off that anti-fraud money, and if we continue to find problems, we can turn off other resources within their state Medicaid programs, as well.”
Democrats might drive the Trump-Vance administration to take actions it would prefer not to do. “Our goal here is not to do that. We don’t want to turn off any money, what we want to do is ensure that people are taking fraud seriously. We want to protect Medicaid. We want to protect Medicare, but we can’t do that if the states that are administering those programs are allowing those programs to be fleeced by fraudsters,” Vance said. Medicare and Medicaid are both unconstitutional and suck up quite enough taxpayer money even when fraud is not involved.
The task force has already put a temporary halt on new Medicare enrollments from hospice and home healthcare services, as independent journalists, whistleblowers, and government officials alike have identified apparently massive networks of hospice fraudsters not only in Democrat states but across the country. Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Mehmet Oz, estimated that in Los Angeles County alone, fraud accounts for almost a fifth of federally-funded home healthcare.
In light of all this, Vance stated, “Whether it’s California, and New York, or Maryland, or Ohio, we encourage people to work with us. We want to help you use technology and other tools to get rid of the fraud, to get to the root of the fraud. We want to help you, but we can only help these state programs if those state programs are willing to help themselves So these letters are the first step, the first effort to try to force these states to get serious about prosecuting fraud, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.” And the reforms can’t happen fast enough.
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