Trump’s Medicaid-fraud crackdown aims to protect those who truly need help

Team Trump’s crackdown on Medicaid fraud, headed by Vice President JD Vance, spells big trouble for Democrats — who pretend to care about health care for the poor but let tens of billions flow to special-interest allies.

That makes a sweeping anti-fraud campaign imperative, especially for those in need.

On Wednesday, Vance announced a freeze on $1.3 billion in federal reimbursements for care at 800 California hospices.

Why?

Dr. Mehmet Oz, who oversees Medicare and Medicaid, notes that a third of the nation’s hospices are in Los Angeles.

“How is that possible?” he asks.

“There are not that many people dying in Los Angeles.”

Oz believes at least half of LA’s hospices “are fraudulent.”

California “has not taken fraud very seriously,” notes Vance; “How long are people going to pay into programs if they know that that money doesn’t go to a low-income kid who needs health care, but . . . [to] a fraudster?”

Indeed, the nation shells out about $1 trillion on Medicaid every year, with about two-thirds coming from Washington. California’s outlay: $222 billion. New York’s: $124 billion.

All ripe for fraud and corruption.

New York is no slouch either when it comes to scams — many visibly geared to enrich Democrats’ allies.

The Empire Center’s Bill Hammond has flagged several:

• “Hundreds of millions” for the Advanced Training Initiative was supposed “to improve care for nursing home residents” but instead went “to subsidize health coverage” for health-care union 1199SEIU’s members.

• The union also diverted taxpayer funds to a group that lobbies for more Medicaid spending.

• Gov. Kathy Hochul arranged a $29 million “distressed provider” grant for Somos Community Care while her campaign banked $400,000 from Somos-affiliated donors.

• Costs for the state’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, which funds home-care aides, are now about $15 billion a year, nearly triple the amount of a decade ago.

And after Hochul claimed to reform CDPAP by contracting with a private company, Public Partnerships LLC, the contract wound up being probed for bid-rigging.

Even beyond all that, Hochul and Dem lawmakers routinely OK massive Medicaid bloat because, as Hammond puts it, they “rely heavily on political support — and campaign donations — from Medicaid-funded health-care interests.”

As for ferreting out fraud, it would be comical if it weren’t tragic: New York spends the most per capita of any state on Medicaid, yet conducts the third-fewest Fraud Control Unit probes per billion spent.

Any savings Vance, Oz & Co. reap from their crackdown may prove troublesome for Dems and the special interests that back them.

But they can be used for truly needy Americans — those Democrats only profess to champion.