The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it is withholding nearly $300 million from California after federal auditors have now confirmed that more than $1.8 BILLION in Medicaid funds may have been unlawfully spent on illegal immigrants across EIGHT states.
The update was revealed by Dr. Oz, who issued a blunt warning on X that the problem is “worse than we thought.”
According to Oz, federal law explicitly prohibits the use of federal Medicaid dollars for non-emergency care for illegal immigrants. While states are free to use their own state funds to provide such coverage, they are required to maintain a clear paper trail proving that no federal dollars were used.
As a result, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is now withholding nearly $300 million from California, which Oz described as “by far the worst offender,” until the state can demonstrate it complied with federal law.
“UPDATE: It’s worse than we thought.
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.
More announcements to come.”
Hellbound and Down 