Dr. Oz Threatens Medicaid in Minnesota—and Warns It’s Just Beginning

Federal Medicaid subsidies could be at risk for millions living in Minnesota, thanks to the executive branch’s latest attempt to punish state residents for a fraud scheme that was caught and handled years ago.

Speaking with Fox Business Wednesday, Mehmet Oz—the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—claimed that billions of dollars for the public health care system was in jeopardy, in Minnesota and elsewhere.

“Well, sticking to the narrative that it’s cold in Minnesota, this is the tip of the iceberg,” Oz said.

The Department of Health and Human Services paused $185 million in aid to Minnesota after right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley alleged there was a sprawling fraud scheme taking federal funds from Minnesota-based day care facilities.

As evidence, he visited a slew of day care centers, arguing that closed sites were fraudulently accepting funding. It would later emerge that elements of Shirley’s report were incorrect or inadequately reported: At least two of the centers featured in his video had been closed for several years, Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families told NewsNation late last month.

More than a dozen schemes have popped up in Minnesota’s safety net programs in recent years, many of them involving members of the state’s Somali population. But they haven’t gone unchecked: More than 90 Minnesotans were charged in federal fraud investigations that began under the Biden administration, at least 60 of which have resulted in convictions.

Yet, apparently incensed by Shirley’s report, the White House ushered a scourge of ICE agents to descend upon the city—though their presence has only caused more problems.

On Wednesday, an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot and killed a 37-year-old woman, Renee Nicole Good, just a few blocks from her home. Video footage of the attack suggested Good was attempting to comply with the masked agents’ orders to drive away, but one member of the deportation agency opted to shoot her several times in the face, instead.

Eyewitnesses to the shooting told MPR News that Good posed “no threat” to the agents.

Donald Trump has already cut off $10 billion in funding for social services such as childcare and aid for poor families in five blue states, including Minnesota.