Report: Fraud, Waste Plague California’s $220 Billion Medi-Cal Program
25th July 2026
The Pacific Research Institute released a study this week breaking down how taxpayers are paying for “a program that has grown beyond the state’s ability to effectively manage it.”
The findings come as the Trump administration announced on July 21 that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is pausing over $860 million in funding to California after federal officials discovered in-home supportive services claims that significantly exceeded national trends.
Sally Pipes, the institute’s president, told the Daily Signal that rooting out fraud should be lawmakers’ top priority.
“If lawmakers could make only one thing happen this year, it should be eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse from Medi-Cal, which now covers 15 million Californians at a cost of $220 billion. The entire state budget for fiscal 2026-27 is $351.7 billion,” she said.
Good luck with that.