Report: Michigan wasted millions on deceased Medicaid enrollees

The Center Square ^ | 11/24/25 | Elyse Apel

[CFW]

Michigan made $39.9 million in Medicaid payments to deceased enrollees over a two-year period a decade ago, with a total of $249 million spent across 14 states.

This is according to a new report titled the “Welfare Walking Dead” from the non-profit the Foundation for Government Accountability, which looked at federal audit data from the Office of Inspector General, among other research.

In an exclusive interview with The Center Square, Jonathan Bain said that every taxpayer should be concerned with these findings. Bain is a senior research fellow at the FGA and authored the report.

“The average citizen should care about these findings because it's yet another example of government waste that's rooted in inefficiency and lack of care and precision,” Bain explained. “Every dollar that is lost to waste, fraud, or abuse is a dollar that cannot be spent to benefit the truly needy—folks like pregnant women, low-income kids, or seniors.”

Of the 14 states the audit looked at, the report found that Michigan reported one of the highest amounts of Medicaid payments to the deceased. States that surpassed it included California at $70.9 million and Ohio at $51.3 million.

Other states, including ones with much higher populations than Michigan, reported much lower Medicaid payments to the deceased. That included Florida at $26.2 million and Illinois at $4.6 million.

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: corruption; fraud; medcaid; michigan

[CFW]

I wonder if it has anything to do with the large Arab population settled in Dearborn as "refugees". Since 2006, more than 100,000 Iraqi refugees have settled in metro Detroit, specifically Dearborn and Sterling Heights.

[George from New England]

Or did the BIG INSURANCE OUTFITS profit here and kept quiet ??

[Sequoyah101]

A decade ago? What about last year or THIS year? Are their records so bad they can’t figure that out or is it that they won’t tell?

[Vaduz]

Michigan accountability department has new homes and cars?.

[bobrlbob]

States should repay the fraudulent funds.

[mass55th]

Somebody’s had a nice scam going. Probably inside job no doubt.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Based on their study (which admittedly does not cover all states), Ohio has more Medicaid fraud than larger states like Texas, New York and Florida. Ohio needs to look into this issue too. With any large social welfare program that just automates transfer payments, there is going to be massive fraud.

[PGalt]

Waste-Fraud-Abuse in Michigan ALERT! Individuals involved? Consequences?

[TBP]

Well, we can’t have people leaving the program.

[ComputerGuy]

Dead people can get sick just like the rest of us.

[Stanwood_Dave]

"Dead people can get sick just like the rest of us."

Dead DemocRAT(S) people can get sick just like the rest of us.

Just check the health records of all those Registered to vote Dead DemocRAT(S) in the local graveyards. We all know it would be racist not to let them vote in all elections.

Wink, wink, fixed it.