The Trump administration on Tuesday paused more than $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota, which Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said would not be reversed until the Democratic-led states “demonstrate that every dollar meets federal requirements.”
“If those states want that money, they need to provide documentations that these payments are legitimate,” Kennedy said at a news conference announcing the HHS action, which he said was a means of preventing the waste of taxpayer dollars.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will defer approximately $867.5 million in federal Medicaid payments to California and $199 million to Minnesota, according to a news release announcing the moratorium, which billed the pause as an effort to advance “the Trump administration’s effort to combat fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicaid and safeguard federal taxpayer dollars.”
Kennedy named Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Tim Walz of Minnesota during the news conference, who have both been consistent targets of the Trump administration, saying that “all they have to do is provide basic documentation showing that these services are legitimate and not fraudulent, and that’s common sense.”
CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, who was also present at Tuesday’s news conference, said that the two states have not documented Medicaid claims “fully and acceptably to the federal government,” adding that a federal review of the states’ low-cost health insurance payouts in recent years turned up “claims that smell like fraud,” although he did not provide specific evidence of alleged fraud.
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Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.
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