Great! Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Doesn’t Understand How Medicare and Medicaid Works

Situational irony is alive, kicking, and thriving in the Trump administration, a bizarro universe where the FBI director bungles serious investigations, the health secretary successfully revived a measles epidemic, and the war defense secretary has an unfortunate habit of accidentally sharing state e-secrets. But in yet another instance of a member of the administration proving how antithetical their qualifications are compared to their job titles, Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz revealed this week that he doesn’t… understand how Medicare and Medicaid works. 

Speaking in an interview with Fox News on Monday at the otherwise sparse Great American State Fair, Oz attempted to explain how rife fraud is among Obamacare recipients when he launched into a diatribe over how “40% of the people ostensibly signed up never use it.” Which, Oz, if you’re reading this, just because people have coverage, it doesn’t mean they use it. And just because they don’t file a claim, it does not mean they simply don’t need health insurance.

Still, all this is a similar pile of fodder Oz shared earlier this month, when he said “We believe that 35% roughly of the people that are using the Affordable Care Act are not legit because they have never filed a claim.” 

“It raises, again, the reality that there are many people who are signed up who are getting paid for, but don’t believe they have the insurance, don’t know they have insurance, don’t want the insurance,” he continued, to the unfortunate dismay of anyone with ears. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” he continued, referring to a so-called “war on fraud” led by Vice President JD Vance, which has cost millions of Americans their health care. 

Over 50% of insured Americans struggle to afford seeing a doctor, and 1 in 4 insured Americans skip medical treatments because of out-of-pocket costs.

The actual fraud is Americans being price gouged on healthcare. https://t.co/aHZeegPkYH

— Melanie D’Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) June 29, 2026

 

During his tirade, however, Oz failed to mention various Obamacare recipients have struggled amid surging health care premiums, and that deductibles and additional costs have surged to all-time highs in 2026. Of course, it probably hasn’t helped that the president seems hellbent on making every affordability crisis worse every time he gets a chance. 

The interview comes just a few days after Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. claimed to have found more than one million individuals enrolled in Obamacare without any Social Security numbers on record, and tweeting that the administration would be “taking decisive action” to weed them out. Personally, I’d like to take “decisive action” on the guys who can’t tell vaccine from virus.