A recent article by The New York Times confirmed that on May 13, Donald Trump’s administration decided suspending about $1.3 million in federal Medicaid payments destined for the state of California.
The decision was confirmed last Wednesday by Vice President JD Vance, who noted that the state of California the fight against fraud in the program had not been “taken very seriously” public health insurance.
“The state of California has not taken fraud very seriouslyVance said at a White House news conference.
“There are California taxpayers and American taxpayers who are being defrauded because California is not taking its program seriously, but then there are people who have been prescribed drugs they don’t even need. They have been given drugs they didn’t need, as scammers have encouraged the issuance of false prescriptions and the fraudulent administration of medications“, continued the vice president, according to the Telemundo media.
In addition, the vice president issued a warning to the states to take action against cases of fraud in their respective Medicaid programs.
To this end, the vice president, according to The New York Timesannounced an audit of a state agency called “Medicaid fraud control unit”whose function is to detect improper expenses.
He added that he has sent letters to different state offices to show that they have combated Medicaid fraud. “energetic and effective manner.”
The recent decision is part of a series of actions that the Trump administration has taken before the numerous cases of fraud in public health insurance programs.
How does this affect migrants?
As a complement to the facts, an article from the media The Nation He explained that this suspension of federal payments, added to the cases of fraud, It directly affects the migrants who are part of the program.
According to The Nationmore than 50% of the almost 14 million beneficiaries of the Medi-Cal program—name of Medicaid in California— they are latin.
The media points out that, so far, the suspension of Medicaid funds does not represent a direct cancellation of the medical coverage service, but rather represents pressure to combatr cases of fraud and justify expenses considered “questionable”.
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