Vance Withholds Billions in Medicaid Funding From California

I gotta wonder what he’s up to

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Hey, JD. I thought you wanted to run for president. I know you’re the Fraud czar and all, but withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California is kinda a boneheaded move.

California is a blue state and you won’t win it in 2028, but ya gotta look at the bigger picture. Which is that those ol’ swing states aren’t gonna look very favorably on possibly cutting people’s Medicaid.

Which is what you’re doing.

Remember, Trump’s base, which you’re counting on, depends on Medicaid. Without it, they’re gonna die and dead people can’t vote. Or, at least, they’re not supposed to.

So, let’s look at the details of this boneheaded move. California is being made an example of what could happen to the other 49 states if they don’t get off their lazy asses and “aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud.”

JD is blaming all of this on California, saying:

“There are California taxpayers and American taxpayers who are being defrauded because California isn’t taking its program seriously, but also you have people who have been prescribed medications that they don’t even need. They’ve had drugs put into their bodies that they don’t need because fraudsters have actually encouraged false prescriptions and false administration of medications.”

Sounds like something Trump wrote.

Here are the gory details of the fraud. According to Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, California is “has generated major red flags.” What are those red flags?

Oz is demanding that the state clarify “$630 million in billing, $500 million in home health services and $200 million in ‘questionable expenditures’ linked to coverage for undocumented immigrants.”

Uh, Doc? You might want to recheck those red flags. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid.

So, while California is clarifying those red flags, the threat for the rest of the states is that funding for their Medicaid Fraud Control Units will be frozen if they don’t start those aggressive Medicaid fraud investigations.

Who knew that there was such a thing as “Medicaid Fraud Control Units?”

Oh, and anther reason given for all of this withholding of funds if fraud is not rooted out is to “protect Medicare.” I’m guessing they threw that in to get seniors on their side. Any time you threaten Social Security and/or Medicare, AARP lights a fire under senior citizens’ asses about it who then start letter writing and phone call campaigns to their Congressional representatives. And seniors vote.

Don’t piss of senior citizens. They’ve got nothing but time to make your life miserable.

I used to wonder about this whole obsession with fraud was about. Where the hell did this come from? Then I realized that Trump is the biggest fraudster this country has ever seen, so it makes sense that if your leader cheats on the regular, then you would think that everyone must be cheating.

Apparently no one remembers that the Republican Party was once headed by Honest Abe Lincoln. Who must be spinning in his grave because the 21st century equivalent of PT Barnum is running his beloved party.

But back to JD and his presidential ambitions. I’m kinda scratching my head here. JD had the balls to tell Trump to his face that war with Iran was a stupid idea. Granted, once the decision was made, JD got behind it, but he covered his ass by regularly reminding everyone that he was initially against the Iran war.

So why doesn’t he do the same thing with this whole withholding Medicaid funds shit? Tell Trump it’s a bad idea. That it will piss off his base. That it will negatively affect the midterms.

If JD is serious about running for president in 2028, he has to start building his platform now. And start ridding himself of the tremendous baggage from the second Trump administration. He needs to build a separate identity from Trump.

Unless he knows something that we don’t know about Trump’s health and he’s planning on taking over the Oval Office soon.