House Republicans are rolling out 14 bills to fight healthcare fraud after a committee report warned taxpayers lose as much as $521 billion a year to federal program scams.

Fox News reported that the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a report warning federally subsidized healthcare programs are rife with fraud and abuse.

The panel said the problem is “impacting every single American, in one way or another.” House Republicans answered with a package of bills aimed at spotting fraud earlier, enforcing the rules, and holding states accountable when loopholes stay open.

Rep. Jodey Arrington has warned that Medicare and Medicaid fraud is costing taxpayers $1 million every minute. He has pointed to Government Accountability Office figures showing up to $500 billion in annual government-wide losses.

GAO puts yearly federal fraud losses between $233 billion and $521 billion

A 2024 GAO estimate found that $233 billion to $521 billion in taxpayer dollars sent to federal programs is lost to fraud every year. The committee report noted that no separate estimate exists for Medicare and Medicaid fraud alone.

Federal healthcare programs already made up 24% of federal spending in 2024, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as cited in the report. Medicaid spending accounts for an average 30.7% of state budgets, and outlays have climbed sharply in recent years.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., did not speak evasively about the prior administration’s record.

"The amount of fraud that the Biden-Harris Administration allowed to go unchecked in government health programs is unacceptable. Every dollar stolen by fraudsters or wasted on improper payments is a dollar that cannot be used to support families in need who rely on these programs."

The committee report put the same point in plain terms for taxpayers footing the bill.

"Taxpayers that fund benefit programs with federal and state taxpayer dollars are cheated by fraud, inflating healthcare costs that are passed along to everyone."

It added: “Every dollar stolen from federal health care programs is a dollar that is not spent on high quality healthcare for those that need it most.”

California and New York Medicaid bills keep soaring

The report spotlighted two big-spending states. California’s Medi-Cal program is expected to rise from $83 billion a year in 2014 to $219.7 billion by 2027.

New York is projected to spend 11% more on Medicaid from all funding sources in 2027, a total of $124 billion. Those numbers land while fraud enforcement still leans on an old “pay and chase” model that investigates after a false claim has already been paid.

Provider schemes described in the report include billing multiple claims for a single service and charging for patients never seen. That is the climate House Republicans say their bills are meant to change.

Congressional fights over executive power remain fierce on other fronts, including when Fetterman broke with Democrats on limits to presidential military authority.

Fourteen bills aim at identification, enforcement, and state accountability

Guthrie called the GOP package “commonsense steps” so states can recoup stolen dollars and close loopholes going forward. The 14 bills fall into three buckets: better fraud identification, stronger enforcement, and real accountability for states that let abuse run.

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, is leading a bill that would force states to designate a single official for internal financial controls in their Medicaid programs.

Rep. Mike Rulli, R-Ohio, has a measure requiring each state to report every year to the federal government on Medicaid fraud vulnerabilities and the plan to fix them. Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., wants states to check whether a new Medicaid enrollee was already removed from another taxpayer-funded healthcare program.

Political pressure on the Trump administration continues in parallel lanes, from a lame-duck Democrat’s impeachment push to other high-stakes oversight fights.

Foreign crime rings already grabbed millions in false claims

The committee report cited the Justice Department’s Operation Gold Rush, which uncovered Russian organized crime actors who billed more than $10 million in false claims through 30 medical supply companies they purchased.

It also flagged foreign healthcare schemes with actors in Hong Kong, Georgia, Estonia, Pakistan, and elsewhere trying to steal billions more in U.S. taxpayer dollars. Those cases show how fast money leaves the country once a weak enrollment or billing gate is open.

DOJ work on sensitive cases draws close watch, including when Kurt Olsen resigned from a team probing alleged plots against Trump.

Vance task force already cutting fraudulent enrollments

Vice President JD Vance announced last week that 760,000 enrollees under the Affordable Care Act, often called ObamaCare, would be removed over fraud claims. The Trump administration has made healthcare fraud crackdowns a priority.

Reuters reported the administration is blocking new home healthcare and hospice providers from enrolling in Medicare for at least six months over widespread fraud concerns. The pause, driven by Vance’s anti-fraud task force, does not hit providers already registered and gives CMS time to review spending.

That freeze fits a broader pattern of executive action under legal and political scrutiny, much like the Trump administration’s Supreme Court fight to restore its third-country deportation policy.

Guthrie and his colleagues argue the choice is simple. Either Washington keeps writing checks first and hunting thieves later, or it builds gates that stop the theft before the money walks out the door.

Taxpayers fund these programs for people who need care, not for crime rings, phantom patients, and open loopholes. The bills now on the table will show who is serious about shutting the spigot.