EDITORIAL: Trump administration cracks down on fraud

The ability to make distinctions in life is essential.

If a 250-pound high school senior shoved another boy to the ground in a school hallway, he could face suspension. If he did it on the football field, he might be cheered. Motorists doing 90 mph down the freeway risk a speeding ticket. But you could be cited if you get in the way of an ambulance driver doing the same thing.

Sugar and salt may look alike, but mix them up while baking and your chocolate chip cookies will be inedible.

The same principle is true for government spending. Just because a government agency allocates money for a noble-sounding cause doesn’t mean the money is well spent. Elected officials and government employees have a duty to ensure that taxpayer money is spent carefully.

Rhetoric on the campaign trail typically reflects this. Politicians from both parties talk about the need to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse.” But notice the reaction to the Trump administration’s efforts to actually do just that.

In March, President Donald Trump put Vice President JD Vance in charge of a Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. On Tuesday, Mr. Vance announced the effort had identified around 760,000 people who were fraudulently signed up for Affordable Care Act plans. Mr. Vance said the individuals were able to enroll because the government wasn’t checking eligibility. Brokers had a financial incentive to boost sign-ups.

Paragon Health Institute, a conservative think tank, estimated there could be up to 6 million “phantom enrollees.” Brokers could have signed them up without their knowledge or they may simply not exist. In an effort to fight fraud, the government announced a moratorium on new brokers through early next year.

Mr. Vance estimated the moves will save $2.2 billion. The savings could be higher, as the government is currently reviewing hundreds of thousands of other enrollees.

Yet Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, criticized the move as an effort to take health coverage “away entirely.”

This is nonsense. If you can’t take away benefits away from people who don’t exist, what’s the point of means-testing at all?

HUD Secretary Scott Turner testified earlier this year that his office had “uncovered more than $5 billion in potential payment errors.” His office also found “money that went to nearly 30,000 dead people,” during the Biden administration. Perhaps stopping payments to dead people can earn bipartisan support.

In July, the Department of Health and Human Services deferred more than $1 billion in Medicaid payments to Minnesota and California. The move came after concerns about flagged providers and in-home care spending growth. Around a quarter of the money in California went to give care to those with “unsatisfactory immigration status,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz said. He added that is an “ongoing massive problem for California.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accused the administration of “cutting more money in health care than they’ve prosecuted for fraud.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office called it a “recycled political stunt.”

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice charged a dozen people in home daycare fraud schemes in San Diego. The DOJ alleges that “more than $10 million intended to help low-income families pay for childcare was instead funneled to bogus daycare providers.” Late last year, journalist Nick Shirley posted a video raising concerns about similar fraud in Minnesota daycares. In May, the DOJ announced it had brought charges against 15 people for health care fraud, which included the owner of a child care center in Mr. Shirley’s video. Two people were charged with child care fraud.

“The DOJ Fraud Division, along with the White House’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, will dismantle illegal schemes from coast-to-coast, just as they did today in Minnesota,” then-Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Yes, this White House has a tendency to exaggerate for political purposes. But fraud against the taxpayers is a serious problem and shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Democrats should work with the Trump administration to root out fraud, not attack Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance when they work to do so.