The Trump administration is launching a major crackdown on government waste and abuse, targeting billions of federal tax dollars spent on healthcare for illegal immigrants while implementing new work requirements for able-bodied Americans on Medicaid.During a White House news briefing Tuesday afternoon, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr.Oz outlined an aggressive strategy to stop "legalized money laundering" that he warned would have cost the program an additional $5.4 trillion over the next decade.Oz revealed the administration identified roughly $2 billion in federal tax dollars improperly going to illegal immigrants, a number that has doubled since he reported on the issue last year.Dr.
Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, during a news conference in the James S.Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.
(Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)FED AUDIT, EMERGENCY MEDICAID UNDERCUT DEMS ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HEALTH COVERAGEHe specifically took aim at California, noting CMS told the state it owes the federal government $2 billion — half of which has already been successfully recouped."Just to put it in context, in California, if you're on Medi-Cal, the Medicaid program in California, until this administration, you got full dental and full vision benefits," Oz said."Now, I'm for those benefits, I like them, but we don't give that to Medicare patients.
So we should at least be equitable, and all of us together should decide what we are going to do as a nation.""The people who pay that bill, when ...the largesse of California allows folks to get benefits that the rest of the country doesn't think is appropriate for illegal immigrants …, is paid by folks who are taxpayers in New Mexico — which is a blue state — and Mississippi, a red state," he continued.Dr.
Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Servi...