RFK Jr.: ‘We Are Paying for Fraud Now, as Much as for Medicine’

TRANSCRIPT:

KENNEDY JR.: "Senator, that is a huge problem. New York State pays, on average, 80 percent more per capita on Medicaid than any other state, 80 percent over the average. And part of the reason for that, as you point out, are these waiver programs that the states, many of the states have now applied for and received. In the old days, Medicaid paid for medical procedures, so if you've got a hernia operation,we could figure that out at CMS, we could see you had a scar that was done by licensed doctor, by a licensed nurse, and we could track to make sure it actually happened. Waivers allow people, family members who are taking care of an elderly parent, who get paid for balancing the checkbook, for picking up the groceries, for driving somebody to a doctor’s appointment. The biggest job in New York, 650,000 people, the biggest employment each is home care. These are family members who are getting paid to do things that they used to do with family members for free. And this is rife with fraud, because we have no way at CMS to determine whether they actually perform that duty or not. We don’t know whether you drove your grandmother to a doctor’s office. It’s an opportunity for fraud and states, corrupt people, fraudsters, are taking that opportunity all over the country, and it’s one of the reasons that Medicaid doubled during the Biden Administration, because we are paying for fraud now as much as for medicine."