GAO Says Medicaid, Medicare Wasted $100 Billion in Last Fiscal Year

The government agency that audits and evaluates all government offices recently concluded that the nation's premier healthcare entitlements have made $100 billion in improper payments in the last fiscal years.

Incredibly, a revelation from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) six months ago that should raise eyebrows on both sides of the aisle in Congress has gone virtually unnoticed by lawmakers as well as both major party presidential candidates.

Along with the revelation of improper payments by both Medicaid ($50.3 billion) and Medicare ($51.1 billion) in Fiscal Year 2023, the report from the GAO revealed that "since Fiscal Year 2003, federal agencies reported about $2.7 trillion in total improper payments [emphasis added]."

"Improper payments — those that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount — have consistently been a government-wide issue," concluded the GAO report entitled "Improper Payments: Information On Agencies' Fiscal Year 2023 Estimates."

A breakdown of the estimated improper payments for FY 2023 showed that there were $175.1 billion in overpayments, $11.5. billion in underpayments, $4.6 billion in technically improper payments, and — to the surprise of many who read it — $44.6 billion in unknown payments.

It did not break down and explain just where these "unknown payments" went.

But it is Medicare and Medicaid — which have two of the largest improper payments listed in the GAO report — that are most significant. Along with being one of the true "crown jewels" of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society in 1964-65, Medicaid is administered by the states with federal matching dollars.

In fact, it accounts for the lion's share in many state budgets and continues to grow.

One who has paid attention to the GAO report is Dr. Merrill Matthews, healthcare expert and head of the Institute for Policy Innovation.

"As the new GAO report shows, trillions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on fraud and mistakes," Matthews told Newsmax, "It has been a problem for decades. And yet almost no politician wants to seriously tackle the problem. Democrats are trying to vastly expand several fraud-ridden entitlement programs, as do some Republicans — notably [Ohio Sen.] J.D. Vance and his proposal to expand the child tax credit."

According to Matthews, "[t]he government will never eliminate fraud and abuse in these programs. But if Congress were able to dramatically reduce fraud and abuse, the government would come much closer to balancing the federal budget without tax increases."