(The Center Square) – Following the Trump Administration\u2019s pause on Medicaid funds in the state of California bover fraud concerns, government watchdogs are saying that Medicaid in the state has become \u201cfiscally unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was once a targeted safety-net program increasingly functions as a vast public entitlement system with growing fiscal and administrative challenges,\u201d Sally C. Pipes, president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy at the Pacific Research Institute wrote in an issue brief<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the Trump administration froze $867 million in Medicaid funds from California, as part of a federal crackdown on Medicaid fraud, The Center Square reported<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cMedicaid fraud and abuse is one of the you know worst things facing the states, and in particular California and Minnesota,\u201d Pipes told The Center Square in an interview on Thursday. \u201cSo I’m delighted that now attention is being paid to this issue, and we might be able to get a grip on eliminating it.\u201d<\/p>\n Pipes cited an estimate<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0from Paragon Health Institute and the Economic Policy Innovation Center that suggests there were over $1 trillion in cumulative federal Medicaid improper payments across the nation, between 2015 and 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we have to strengthen eligibility requirements and we need to increase oversight of the managed care organizations because they’re the people that run the Medi-Cal program here in California,\u201d Pipes said. \u201cWe need to improve transparency surrounding Medi-Cal financing and we need to refocus limited taxpayer resources on the vulnerable residents of this state who are here legally.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearly 15 million people are covered by Medi-Cal, California\u2019s name for Medicaid, and annual healthcare spending has grown to be more than $200 billion by that state, according to the issue brief. California\u2019s total budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year is $351.7 billion.<\/p>\n \u201cTaxpayers are hurt because they’re paying higher and higher taxes and they’re supporting a program that is full of fraud and abuse, and not taking care of the vulnerable people who it was set up to take care of,\u201d Pipes said.<\/p>\n