{"id":743886,"date":"2026-07-05T03:05:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T03:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/743886\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T03:05:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T03:05:40","slug":"editorial-feds-find-more-health-care-fraud-when-will-it-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/743886\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: Feds find more health care fraud \u2014 when will it end?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It shouldn\u2019t be too much to ask that taxpayer-funded social service programs benefit people who actually exist.<\/p>\n

Apparently it is, as more than 1 million people enrolled in Obamacare plans lack Social Security numbers, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.<\/p>\n

As the New York Post reported, that\u2019s \u201ca glaring warning sign for fraud\u201d across the Obamacare program, Kennedy said, blaming President Trump\u2019s predecessors for not maintaining proper guardrails in social safety net programs.<\/p>\n

The guardrails are wonky in a few areas.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Justice Department<\/a> announced the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown yielded charges against 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud and opioid abuse schemes involving over $6.5 billion in false claims and significant patient harm, including death.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth care fraud steals from taxpayers, exploits vulnerable patients, and puts lives at risk,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

And yet fraud crackdowns find millions to billions of taxpayer dollars wasted, at the state and national levels. Earlier this year U.S. Attorney Leah Foley\u00a0announced an alleged SNAP fraud involving more than 100 stolen identities used to obtain over $1 million in SNAP and Public Unemployment Assistance benefits.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s our money. It should go where it needs to, and not in the pockets of crooks.<\/p>\n

Obamacare coverage is back in the news as millions are dropping the health coverage in the wake of subsidies ending. As the New York Times reported, initial sign-ups had already fallen by about 1.2 million people. But insurance companies, state officials and industry analysts are reporting that many more have lost Obamacare coverage now that people are facing long-term higher costs.<\/p>\n

Adding insult to injury: Oz claimed that \u201crogue agents and other bad actors\u201d have been enrolling \u201cunsuspecting Americans in health plans they never signed up for,\u201d and using fake identities to collect fees from insurance companies for \u201cselling plans they never legitimately sold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Typically, they select plans that don\u2019t have premiums so that people are unaware that they\u2019ve been enrolled, according to the health bosses.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these agents refuse to follow basic rules, like providing their clients\u2019 social security numbers. That, my friends, is a huge red flag,\u201d Oz claimed.<\/p>\n

How many have gotten away with it, and for how long? Taxpayers assume that the money they send to Washington each year goes to programs and people who legitimately need it.<\/p>\n

Government should make the lives of Americans better and take steps to ensure that fraud doesn\u2019t erode their trust, and the impact of their taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are we paying people we don\u2019t know if they actually exist?\u201d Kennedy asked.<\/p>\n

Because no one, apparently, was watching the till.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a fraudster, here\u2019s our advice to you: do not walk away from us, run, because we are going to find you,\u201d Oz added.<\/p>\n

Keep it up.<\/p>\n

\"EditorialEditorial cartoon by Joe Heller (Joe Heller)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It shouldn\u2019t be too much to ask that taxpayer-funded social service programs benefit people who actually exist. Apparently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[129840,6884,97,252,253,39817,30036,788],"class_list":["post-743886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-dr-mehmet-oz","tag-fraud","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-healthcare-fraud","tag-obamacare","tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}