Gavin Newsom Slams Dr. Oz As Trump Admin Halts Over $1B Medicaid Payments

California Governor Gavin Newsom's office has criticized the Trump administration after Dr. Mehmet Oz and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to pause more than $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments.

"CMS is PAUSING over $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California and to Minnesota because of suspected fraud and non-compliance," [Kennedy said, on X]. That includes over $867M for CA and over $200M for Minnesota.

Newsom's office called it "the same recycled political stunt we've seen before," adding: "California isn't being targeted because Trump has evidence of fraud. We are being targeted for political reasons — and because Dr. Oz doesn't understand that we are *SAVING* taxpayers money by keeping seniors and people with disabilities out of far more expensive nursing homes! We hate fraud. That's not what this is. And we stand ready to collaborate with CMS in good faith efforts to combat fraud."

A Minnesota official complained of a lack of "data or explanation on how the deferral amount was calculated or what it was based on," adding: "I respectfully ask the federal government to partner with us and share any information about their methods to identify potentially fraudulent providers in Minnesota. Today's actions show that the federal government is acting again in unprecedented and punitive ways as part of their war on Medicaid and its recipients."

RFK Jr.: "Medicaid exists to serve vulnerable Americans — not to bankroll unsupported claims. Under President Trump's leadership, we are restoring accountability across our public programs and protecting taxpayer dollars. States that receive federal Medicaid funding must demonstrate that every dollar meets federal requirements. When they cannot, we will not release federal funds until they do."

Dr. Oz: "CMS is done trying to chase down stolen and misused funds after they've already left the building. That's why we're deferring payments with respect to certain high-risk services within the Medicaid programs in California and Minnesota as part of our proactive new approach to program integrity. By stopping waste and fraud before the check clears, CMS is delivering record-high savings for taxpayers and ensuring that their hard-earned dollars reach the vulnerable Americans Medicaid is meant to serve."

According to HHS, CMS reviewed claims across 14 "high-risk" service areas and identified expenditures requiring additional review before federal matching funds are released. Medicaid, a joint federal-state program that provides health coverage to more than 70 million Americans, has increasingly become a focus of those efforts.

[Note: this outlet's retrieval was compiled from directly quoted fragments in sequence, not a single continuous paste of the article — see scouting notes; every sentence above is verbatim as fetched, ordering approximates the original article's flow.]