Clarifying claim that DOGE, RFK Jr. found 8M people fraudulently on Medicaid [View all]
In May 2025, a claim spread online that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the U.S. discovered 8 million people fraudulently enrolled in Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income people.
While U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that 8 million people are on Medicaid because of "fraud, waste and abuse," and that DOGE helped determine this, there is no evidence backing up the claim that this number originated from DOGE's work.
However, the Congressional Budget Office did estimate that approximately 7.6 million or 7.7 million people will lose Medicaid coverage under U.S. President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which appears to be where Kennedy's numbers come from.
Kennedy also claimed, as did many people online, that of the 8 million, 1 million are enrolled in Medicaid in multiple states, about 1 million enrollees are immigrants in the country illegally and another million are enrolled in plans under both Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/05/24/medicaid-doge-rfk-jr/
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