On Thursday, December 11, 2025, Dr. Mehmet Oz joined Greg Kelly on Newsmax and delivered a blunt warning that should shake every hardworking American awake: criminal networks are siphoning off Medicare and Medicaid, putting the elderly and disabled squarely in harm’s way. Oz said the problem unfolding in Minnesota is a horrifying example of a larger, nationwide crisis that Washington can no longer ignore.
Oz told viewers the White House and senior officials are already coordinating a sweeping crackdown and that a formal press conference would follow the weekend to update the public and lay out the next steps. This is the kind of decisive federal response conservatives have been calling for — action, not lectures — to stop thieves who treat our safety net like an open buffet.
This isn’t small potatoes. The Justice Department’s recent nationwide takedown in June 2025 — involving hundreds of defendants and alleged losses in the billions — proved how deeply organized these scams have become and how much they are costing taxpayers. If Washington would direct this same ferocity at fraud year-round, instead of only when it’s politically convenient, billions could be redirected back to real patient care.
Oz went further, naming the ugly truth conservatives have warned about: transnational criminal organizations and foreign bad actors are exploiting our healthcare system, from durable medical equipment scams to hospice and home-health shell games. Federal prosecutors have even indicted defendants tied to a Russia-linked operation dubbed “Operation Gold Rush,” showing this isn’t garden-variety fraud but sophisticated, international theft.
Minnesota’s scandal should be a wake-up call to state leaders who prefer spin over solutions; when officials downplay these crimes, the people who suffer most are the frail and elderly who depend on Medicare and Medicaid. Instead of knee-jerk defenses and political theater, elected officials must cooperate with federal investigators and prioritize prosecutions that put predators behind bars.
Conservatives should applaud any administration that moves from talk to enforcement, and we should demand Congress fund the prosecutors and data tools necessary to root out these networks for good. This is about more than politics — it’s about restoring basic competence and common-sense oversight so taxpayer dollars fund care, not criminal paydays.
Protecting America’s most vulnerable is a moral duty and a patriotic imperative; let this moment galvanize a full-court press against fraud, with bipartisan support for real reforms, vigorous prosecutions, and stronger safeguards at the border and in our programs. If leaders won’t act, voters must, because when the system fails the elderly and disabled, we all fail as a nation.
