RFK Jr. draws backlash for ripping Medicaid programs that pay people to care for relatives

Advocates for disabled people and caregivers said they were insulted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s allegations that Medicaid programs are "rife with fraud."

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparked outrage among disability rights advocates with recent comments alleging widespread fraud in Medicaid programs that pay people to care for elderly or disabled family members — a system millions of Americans rely on to survive.

Subscribe to read this story ad-free

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.

During testimony before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee last week, Kennedy criticized Medicaid-funded programs that pay relatives to serve as caregivers, alleging they compensate people for tasks they “used to do as family members for free.” That includes paying them “for balancing the checkbook, for picking up the groceries, for driving somebody to a doctor’s appointment,” he said.

“And this is rife with fraud,” Kennedy said, because the federal government has no way “to determine if they actually performed that duty or not.”