Elon Musk announced on his social media platform X that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had wasted a staggering “$100 billion of taxpayer money.”
Musk is leading the charge under President Trump’s newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
TGP reports: On Wednesday, Musk’s team, along with two senior veterans from the agency, has been meticulously reviewing the CMS’s payment and contracting systems, which are crucial for managing health insurance for approximately one in every four Americans, according to far-left USA Today.
“CMS has two senior Agency veterans – one focused on policy and one focused on operations – who are leading the collaboration with DOGE, including ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology,” the agency said in a statement to Reuters.
The DOGE team was granted read-only access to the system.
Their mission, as outlined by Andrew G. Nixon, the HHS director of communications, is to identify “opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources” in alignment with President Trump’s efficiency agenda.
However, the narrative has quickly escalated from efficiency to accusations of rampant waste and potential fraud.
“This is where the big money fraud is happening,” Musk tweeted on Wednesday in response to a post suggesting that aides using DOGE are searching the Medicare agency payment systems for fraud.
Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening https://t.co/jXqXrlKDGp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2025
However, the most explosive claim came later on Thursday night when Musk tweeted, “They wasted $100B of taxpayer money!”
They wasted $100B of taxpayer money! https://t.co/LZtrliFiJU
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2025
Elon Musk’s comment may not be related to the recent audit from DOGE. It might refer to the 2024 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, which revealed that an estimated $100 billion in improper payments were made within the Medicare and Medicaid programs during Fiscal Year 2023.
“An estimated $100 billion in estimated improper payments were made in the Medicare and Medicaid programs in Fiscal Year 2023. This is 43% of government-wide improper payments that year,” DOGE wrote back in November.
If this is the case, expect more fraud to be uncovered in this system in the coming days.
По материалам: http://www.planet-today.com/2025/02/medicare-medicaid-wasted-100b-of.html