{"id":24571,"date":"2026-05-22T09:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T09:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/taxpayer-funded-exorcisms-the-medicaid-debate-just-got-wild\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T09:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T09:29:10","slug":"taxpayer-funded-exorcisms-the-medicaid-debate-just-got-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/taxpayer-funded-exorcisms-the-medicaid-debate-just-got-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxpayer-Funded Exorcisms? The Medicaid Debate Just Got Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative\" data-narration-container=\"true\">\n<p>California\u2019s federally funded Medicaid program pays for exorcisms, herbal medicines, meal deliveries, and housing, among other services that don\u2019t appear to be medically essential, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) pointed out this week.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy brought up California\u2019s strange Medicaid payments during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday as he questioned Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The Trump administration is engaged in a nationwide effort to root out fraud and has zeroed in on Democrat-run states, including California and Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>During Tuesday\u2019s hearing, which focused on the DOJ\u2019s 2027 budget, Kennedy pointed out that for every $1 that California spends on Medicaid, American taxpayers spend $9 to prop up the system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCalifornia will actually pay a healthcare provider, I didn\u2019t know this was a medical expertise, to pay for exorcisms,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"w_sTmE-3zeI\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Taxpayer-funded exorcisms? The Medicaid debate just got WILD\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w_sTmE-3zeI?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Wall Street Journal editorial board brought attention to California\u2019s exorcism coverage in an op-ed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/california-medicaid-payments-fraud-jd-vance-cms-mehmet-oz-0fdb051e?mod=opinion_lead_pos1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published<\/a> last week. In the piece, the Journal pointed out that exorcisms and tribal prayers are covered by Medicaid, along with activities \u201cthat support an eligible member\u2019s inclusion in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCalifornia Medicaid program will pay for herbal medicines, meal deliveries. They\u2019ll pay for housing. I don\u2019t know what housing has to do with healthcare,\u201d Kennedy added. \u201cIs that correct?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d Blanche replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWere you aware that the Medicaid program, using federal taxpayer money, will pay for an in-home chef?\u201d Kennedy asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, if it\u2019s a family member,\u201d Blanche said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ll even pay for gymnasium fees in California. They\u2019ll pay for bicycles, scooters, gym memberships. Did you know that?\u201d Kennedy asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d Blanche said. \u201cSeveral states do, but California does for sure.<\/p>\n<p>California has also used Medicaid funds to repay qualifying individuals\u2019 student loans \u201cto encourage them to become a healthcare provider,\u201d according to Kennedy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was not aware of the student loans repayment,\u201d Blanche said.<\/p>\n<p>California\u2019s Medicaid payments have come under the microscope, and the Trump administration froze $1.3 billion in federal funds for the program earlier this month.\u00a0Vice President JD Vance blasted the state\u2019s leaders last week, saying, \u201cThe state of California has not taken fraud very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The state\u2019s Medicaid fund has more than doubled since 2019, currently sitting at $220 billion, which is more than the entire general fund budget of any other state, according to the Journal.<\/p>\n<p>Vance\u2019s anti-fraud task force has also focused on the Republican-led state of Ohio, following an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/inside-ohios-home-health-empire-7-buildings-288-medicaid-companies-250-million\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investigation<\/a> by Daily Wire reporter Luke Rosiak that uncovered billions of dollars in dubious \u201cpersonal services\u201d payments, allowing individuals to be paid to spend time with their own family.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/taxpayer-funded-exorcisms-the-medicaid-debate-just-got-wild\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California\u2019s federally funded Medicaid program pays for exorcisms, herbal medicines, meal deliveries, and housing, among other services that don\u2019t appear to be medically essential, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) pointed out this week. Kennedy brought up California\u2019s strange Medicaid payments during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday as he questioned Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-current-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}