When will Gavin Newsom and his party learn that fraud doesn’t pay?
Maybe now, after the Trump administration announced that it is withholding an additional $1.2 billion in Medicaid funding due to suspicion of fraud.
Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, speaks during a press briefing following a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at the United Nations in New York City, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. ZUMAPRESS.com
A general view shows the building at 17075 Devonshire St., location of the main office of an attending physician for dozens of hospices in California, in Northridge, Calif., Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Pedro Colo for CA Post
President Donald Trump listens as Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in Washington. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
The announcement, by Medicare and Medicaid chief Dr. Mehmet Oz, is not the first warning California has had.
Dr. Oz previously withheld $1.3 billion in funding due to concerns about hospice fraud — which California leaders belatedly admitted was a real problem.
Now, Dr. Oz is pointing to the sudden and suspicious increase in the number of people claiming benefits in California due to age and disability.
The state has seen a 24% increase in such claims over the past three years — twice the rate of any other state.
It looks dodgy — and it needs to be investigated.
Fraud is now costing California vast amounts of money, in two ways.
First, there’s the money the fraudsters steal.
Second, there’s the money that federal taxpayers won’t send to a state that lets it be stolen.
Multiple hospice and home-health-care agencies are registered to operate from a building at 7200 Vineland Ave. in Sun Valley, Calif., Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Pedro Colo for CA Post
California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at the California Economic Summit in Long Beach, California, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. AFP via Getty Images
An auto parts store stands at 8777 San Fernando Rd., the listed address for Queen of the Valley Home Health, in Sun Valley, Calif., Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Pedro Colo for CA Post
Democrats have ignored fraud for far too long — and not just in Sacramento.
There’s a handout mentality, fueled by a sense of entitlement.
And there’s also a laziness about oversight. Democrats seem content to accept massive fraud, as long as some of the money finds its way to a worthy recipient, somehow.
These problems are even worse in California, where Republicans are a small minority in the Legislature and rarely win statewide office.
There is very little accountability in a one-party state.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, speaks ahead of Vice President JD Vance during a midterm campaign rally at the LevelUp Training Complex in Monroe, Michigan, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. REUTERS
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a campaign event ahead of Election Day, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, in Nashua, N.H. AP Photo/Reba Saldanha
When Bill Essayli was in the state Assembly, Democrats kicked him off his committees for asking too many questions.
Now that he’s the lead federal prosecutor in LA, he’s holding people accountable — and not just for financial fraud, but for voter fraud as well.
California Democrats have been running on the idea that President Donald Trump has cut Medicaid funding.
That’s not true: He only cut the rate of increase. And he did that only by imposing work requirements to qualify for aid, which California rejects.
The people who are really cutting Medicaid are the people in charge of the state who won’t dismantle the fraud networks and make sure the money is reaching people who really need it.
Democrats will complain, and they may sue, but the fact is that Trump and Dr. Oz are doing them a favor.
That’s because the biggest victims of fraud in California are Californians themselves.
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