Free Republic

The Washington Post editorial board has apparently recently discovered that Social Security and Medicare are in trouble, and they are shocked, shocked, I tell you! That part is true, and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. This is a fact that anyone not living under a rock has known for a very long time. According to the 2026 Social Security Trustees Report, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is projected to exhaust its reserves in late 2032. At that point, incoming revenue would cover only about 78 percent of scheduled benefits. Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is projected...

Instead of drawing out the big mystery over how much of your money Washington wastes on improper payments, I'll just tell you right up front: In the 20 years between 2003 and 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates the total money blown on payments made in error, or in the wrong amount, or with no documentation (!!!) is $2.7 TRILLION.That's a two followed by a seven followed by 11 zeroes. That's almost double what we spent last year on Medicare/Medicaid combined, or on Social Security. It's triple last year's defense budget. It's almost triple the unconscionable amount we spent...

WASHINGTON — Dem House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was dodgy Sunday about whether he backs the lefty Medicare for All plan — and if Democratic Socialists of America even belong in the party. Backlash was immediate and fierce. “This man is so out of touch with his party. How is he their leader??” grumbled Mehdi Hasan, founder of the progressive outlet Zeteo, of the New York rep, on social media. Jeffries was confronted on the multitrillion-dollar Medicare for All proposal while appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I haven’t cosponsored the Medicare for All legislation that has been introduced over...

NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker got the radical socialist running for one of Michigan’s senate seats to admit what anybody with sense could deduce about the “Medicare-for-All” scam: Everyone will have to pay for it.

Millions of Americans spend decades preparing for retirement, only to discover one of the biggest expenses isn’t housing, travel, or taxes. It’s healthcare.A new estimate from Fidelity suggests that a 65-year-old retiring today should expect to spend $185,500 on healthcare throughout retirement. That’s a 7.5% increase from last year and the steepest annual jump in more than a decade.Even more concerning, more than half of Americans approaching retirement don’t realize Medicare leaves them responsible for thousands of dollars in costs.Retirement Healthcare Costs Just Hit a New HighAccording to Fidelity’s 25th Annual Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate, a typical 65-year-old retiring...

The Trump administration is ending a key health insurance subsidy program that aimed to keep premiums for seniors' prescription drug plans in check, claiming that it benefits corporate insurance companies, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz. Medicare Part D -- the government health insurance program's prescription drug benefit -- is used by tens of millions of older or disabled beneficiaries. The program's subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year, the administration announced Tuesday.

Last month we highlighted Social Security’s cumulative effect on federal deficits in the next ten years. That often surprises people who think Social Security is “paid for” through payroll taxes.What will surprise them even more: the much larger Medicare effect on federal deficits over the next decade.You might ask yourself: don’t people pay for Medicare with payroll taxes when they work or with monthly premiums when they retire?They do. And payroll taxes do cover almost all of Part A’s expenditures. But it is written into law that three-quarters of Parts B and D are explicitly subsidized by taxpayers. The Medicare...

Left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed supports universal health care through a single-payer "Medicare for All" system that would cover every American "from cradle to grave." His wife, psychiatrist Sarah Jukaku, does not take Medicare or any other insurance plan, forcing her patients to pay out of pocket for the services they receive. She also appears to have scrubbed a portion of the "Frequently Asked Questions" page on her website making clear that she does not accept insurance. Jukaku, who has a medical degree from Columbia University and a masters from the University of Oxford, worked as co-chief of psychiatry...

Medicare and Medicaid are losing billions of taxpayer dollars to criminals because they can’t keep pace with their high-tech scams, a Post investigation has found. International criminal networks employ hackers who steal sensitive patient data then sell it on the dark web or use it to then bill for fake medical equipment or services in people’s names. Scammers even use AI voice bots to coax info out of seniors on the phone, posing as US healthcare workers, often from thousands of miles away in Europe or Asia. They use the same techniques on the insurance companies, with one Philippines-based outfit...

Six people have been charged in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid involving a doctor and other medical professionals issuing medically unnecessary prescriptions to a pharmacist in exchange for cash kickbacks. The defendants allegedly caused a loss of about $20,684,264 to Medicare and Medicaid. The following individuals were charged by Information in the District of New Jersey on July 7, 2026 and appeared before Judge Karen M. Williams in federal district court in Camden in connection with the scheme: * Sherif Elmasri, 45, of Morganville, New Jersey, pled guilty to a two-count Information charging him with...

In December 2025, India seized over 100,000 forged diplomas from 28 universities that had been accepted by American companies for employment. In a bombshell report by a former U.S. diplomat, Mahvash Siddiqui alleged that 80% to 90% of the H-1B visa applications from India she reviewed involved fraudulent documentation or unqualified applicants. What is even more alarming is that some of those applicants could now be serving as physicians, surgeons and in various roles as health care professionals across the United States due to decades-old policies that incentivize the speedy hiring of foreign health care professionals. A compounded immigration issue...

There are 64 Medicaid-funded social adult daycare centers packed into a single one-mile radius of Flushing, Queens. Not 64 in the borough. Not 64 in the city. Sixty-four within walking distance of each other, according to a new CBS News data analysis that found the densest cluster of such facilities anywhere in the country. Federal investigators have noticed, and they are asking the question any taxpayer with a pulse would ask. “[It] begs the question: How many social adult daycare centers do you need?” said Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in the CBS...

A quiet Brooklyn storefront served as a key part of a $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme led by the Russian mob, a federal indictment charges — and could even have been backed by the Kremlin. The scheme was so brazen, one medical supply company linked to the outfit submitted bills totaling over $250 million for urinary catheters in 2023 alone, according to the feds. The number was so large it amounted to $50 million more than the combined spend of every other medical provider in the country on catheters that year. The scam started in 2022 when a Russia-based transnational...

CONSTITUTIONAL PATRIO@ConstitustionX·4h🚨 JUSTICE STRIKES AGAIN! 🚨The FBI just HUNTED DOWN Herbert Leon Kimble — the #2 kingpin on their brand new “Most Wanted Fraudsters” list — and dragged him back from the Philippines in handcuffs!This crook allegedly masterminded a $1.2 BILLION Medicare fraud empire using a sophisticated call center scam that stole from American taxpayers and patients.Fugitive no more.TWO arrests from the list in just THREE weeks.The White House Anti-Fraud Task Force is delivering. Big fraudsters are running scared.Massive W for @FBIDirectorKash and @DAGToddBlanche Who’s next? #FraudBusters #DrainTheSwamp #JusticeServed #MAGA6/22/2026TRANSCRIPT BEGINS~~~Reporter 1: ...second most wanted fraudster allegedly behind, listen to...

DALLAS — Federal prosecutors have charged 13 people in North Texas as part of a sweeping nationwide healthcare fraud crackdown involving billions of dollars in false claims. The crackdown was a coordinated effort that included more than 450 defendants nationwide, U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said in a news release. Investigators say the schemes involve more than $6.5 billion in fraudulent claims and, in some cases, led to serious patient harm. In North Texas alone, prosecutors say the cases involve more than $365 million in fraudulent billing, targeting taxpayer-funded programs like Medicare and TRICARE. Authorities also seized more than $35 million...

A fugitive accused of helping mastermind a $3.7 billion Medicare fraud scheme — one of the largest in U.S. history — is in American custody after authorities tracked him down in Turkey and flew him back to the U.S. to face charges, the FBI announced Monday. Ibrahim Khaldoon Hilmi was recently detained by Turkish authorities after he fled the U.S. in May 2025, the FBI said. The FBI's Critical Incident Response Group flew out to Turkey and transported Hilmi to the U.S. on Friday through a foreign transfer of custody operation. FBI Director Kash Patel hailed the operation as a...

The budget can’t be balanced without reform to Social Security and Medicare. Why won’t politicians admit it? America’s entitlement programs have morphed into something their creators never intended: an intergenerational wealth transfer sustained by promises that are completely removed from fiscal reality. The numbers are no longer debatable. Social Security and Medicare are on a collision course with insolvency that polite political rhetoric cannot wish away. While rooting out fraud and improving efficiency should be one of Washington’s top priorities, that alone cannot close the gap. The baby boomer generation benefited from favorable demographics, strong wage growth and affordable homes...

Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s point man for Medicare and Medicaid, says the billions of entitlement fraud being uncovered in Democrat states may be intentionally driven by politics rather than incompetence. “I do think it's a feature for some of these states,” Oz told Just the News in a wide-ranging interview Thursday night in which he detailed why the administration led by Vice President JD Vance temporarily pulled $1.3 billion in Medicaid funding from California and uncovered foreign fraudsters stealing taxpayer welfare monies. “Republicans always suspected there was fraud of this magnitude. Democrats feel embarrassed that it's gotten this...

Has anyone seen the ads for medicare benefit heath cards? The ads also describe is as a grocery card; able to be used for food and medicine. Some of the ads also shows grandma or grandpa puts on parties and BBQ for family saying they paid for it by the card. Is this suggesting improper use and possible fraud, at least in my mind.

One of the state’s leading hospice care providers told Texas legislators that Medicare fraud is rampant across the Lone Star State, with rogue operators billing Medicare for millions in Taxpayer dollars. Testimony revealed that patients are being enrolled into hospice without their knowledge, and at least one provider has as many as 15 hospices operating in a single building, with the same owner. Hospice Brazos Valley President and CEO Lisa McNair recently testified before the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services and said that the number of registered hospices in Texas has nearly doubled in the last six...