Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Friday, stating that nearly 1.5 million individuals were illegal immigrants illegally collecting Medicaid benefits.
When Texas Representative Greg Casar asked whether Kennedy had personally met with Americans who lost health insurance coverage over the past year, Kennedy responded: “They’re almost all illegal immigrants,” he said flatly. “We found 1.5 million illegal immigrants illegally collecting Medicaid.”
Kennedy further explained that approximately one million people were simultaneously claiming Medicaid benefits from multiple states—a practice he described as illegal and fraudulent. He also criticized the Biden administration for directing the Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop all program integrity activities, stating: “The previous administration actively told the fraud cops to stand down.”
Additionally, Kennedy noted that measles outbreaks in the United States began in January 2025 before he took office, reporting that the U.S. had approximately 2,200 cases while Mexico had three times the number with a fraction of the population and Canada had double the U.S. count with one-eighth the population.
Kennedy cited an estimated annual cost of $100 billion in fraud across federal entitlement programs, saying: “If we stop fraud just in Medicare, we can extend that program for another five years.” He also highlighted changes to the HHS payment system, stating that under his leadership, the agency ended the “pay and chase” practice—where fraudulent claims were paid upfront and then recovered later—and implemented a new “detect and deploy” strategy using artificial intelligence.
Under Kennedy’s administration, HHS shut down 500 fraudulent hospices in Los Angeles alone. Kennedy also noted that the Biden administration had reinstated 850 providers who had previously been suspended for fraud.