Dr. Oz Gets Core Tenet Of Medicaid Wrong In Fox Interview

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the current Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, doesn’t seem to know who actually relies on the programs he oversees.

In an interview with “Fox & Friends” Monday, Oz claimed the program was originally intended only to assist young children, the elderly and the disabled ― and that in the last few years it’s been gamed by “able-bodied” people who “just hang out” and watch television all day.

“When the program was created 60 years ago, it never dawned on anyone that you would take able-bodied individuals who could work ― and put them on Medicaid,” Oz claimed.

“Today, the average able-bodied person on Medicaid doesn’t work. They watch 6.1 hours of television or just hang out. That’s not fair. Go out and try to get a job.”

That’s simply not true.

According to data tracked by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 92% of adults under the age of 65 who are on Medicaid and don’t receive additional Social Security disability payments work full or part time, or are unable to work due to caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability, or to attend school.

The remaining 8% of adults receiving Medicaid said they were retired, unable to find work or were not working for another reason.

Oz went on to claim, while providing no evidence, that states like California are draining Medicaid coffers by allowing undocumented migrants to receive medical care, while “places like Mississippi and Virginia are paying extra federal taxes to compensate for that.”

Again, that’s just not true. California is one of 13 states that sends more money to the federal government than it receives. Virginia and Mississippi, meanwhile, are on the opposite end of the spectrum.