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Alliance Alert: Recent comments from Mehmet Oz at the POLITICO Health Care Summit highlight a troubling pattern we’ve been seeing from the federal administration: broad claims of Medicaid fraud used to justify increased scrutiny, administrative burden, and ultimately, cuts to essential health coverage.

While accountability in public programs is important, these claims continue to be made with little credible evidence, and in some cases, have been outright wrong.

Most notably, the administration recently misrepresented data on ����������’s Medicaid program, claiming that 5 million enrollees were receiving personal care services. In reality, the number was closer to 450,000, a massive discrepancy that raises serious concerns about the accuracy and integrity of the analysis being used to justify these actions. When such flawed data is used to allege fraud, it not only undermines trust but puts critical services at risk.

This matters because these narratives are not happening in a vacuum. They are being used to support policies that could restrict access to services, impose burdensome requirements, and justify deep cuts to Medicaid, one of the most vital sources of health coverage in the country.

At a time when millions rely on Medicaid for mental health services, substance use treatment, primary care, and long-term supports, we cannot allow misinformation to drive policy decisions.

It is critical that states push back strongly against these unfounded claims and defend the integrity of their programs. Protecting Medicaid means protecting access to services, especially for people with mental health and substance use challenges, people with disabilities, and communities already facing systemic barriers to healthcare.

The stakes are too high to let faulty data and political narratives erode the foundation of our healthcare system.

The Alliance for Rights and Recovery will continue to:

• Monitor these developments closely
• Share timely updates and analysis
• Provide opportunities for advocates to take action and make their voices heard

Now more than ever, we must stay informed, push back against misinformation, and work together to ensure that everyone has access to the services and coverage they need.

Oz Unveils Nationwide Plan to Tackle Medicaid Fraud at POLITICO Summit
By Amanda Chu | Politico | April 21, 2026

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz is taking his fraudbusting effort to all 50 states.

At POLITICO’s Health Care Summit on Tuesday, Oz unveiled a nationwide plan to crack down on alleged Medicaid fraud, announcing his agency will require all states this week to submit a plan within 30 days on how they will revalidate Medicaid providers.

“We’re asking the states to own that problem… red and blue, all of them,” said Oz, a medical doctor who popularized his moniker, Dr. Oz, when he was a TV show host. As CMS administrator, Oz oversees the nation’s largest health insurance programs.

“If you don’t take it seriously, it indicates to us that we might have to take the audits… more aggressively,” he added.

Oz’s comments arrive as the Trump administration and Congress  in an effort to blunt Democratic attacks on health care affordability ahead of the November midterm elections. Democrats are expected to leverage soaring Obamacare premiums and the more than $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts enacted in Trump’s domestic policy package last year against their GOP counterparts on the campaign trail.

In his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump declared a “war on fraud” and put Vice President JD Vance in charge of the effort. Oz, the high-profile face of the campaign, has released a string of viral videos in recent weeks highlighting his agency’s crackdowns and launched probes mostly in Democratic-led states.

So far, Oz has sent letters to California, Florida, Maine and ���������� alleging fraud in their Medicaid programs. Last month, CMS  submitted by Minnesota to combat Medicaid fraud after threatening a $2 billion cut to future Medicaid payments to the state due to noncompliance.

But Oz suffered a major setback earlier this month when his agency admitted that an error in its analysis of fraud in ����������’s Medicaid program grossly overstated the number of enrollees with personal care services, according to . Oz had claimed that ���������� had provided 5 million Medicaid enrollees with personal care services, but the real number was around 450,000.

At Tuesday’s summit, Oz defended the administration’s fraud-busting efforts and cuts to Medicaid, calling the upcoming work requirements a “beautiful tool” to help able-bodied Americans reenter the U.S. workforce.

“I love Medicaid. I cannot say that more fervently, and when you love something, you protect it. You don’t let it get defrauded,” he said.

Oz also dismissed Democratic concerns that the loss of enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which expired at the end of December, have left millions of Americans uninsured. A  released by CMS in January for 2026 Obamacare coverage found that signups this year declined by 1.2 million from last year to 22.9 million, a 5 percent drop.

“We didn’t see the mass departure off of the system,” said Oz. “Democrats are making this into a political football because they want to blame something on the Republicans on health care.”

Seattle , a Democrat on the House Budget Committee, rejected the premise that combatting fraud required health care spending cuts, at POLITICO’s summit Tuesday morning.

“Americans don’t want to be called fraudsters. To take away core benefits that people desperately need in order to crack down on some small group of people, that’s not what Americans want,” she said.