Adobe Images How many times a day do you have to prove that you’re you? Between authenticator apps, six-digit codes, password resets, and the last four digits of your Social Security number, it certainly adds up.
So why is identity verification not a required step for trillions of dollars in government welfare spending?
Congress, federal agencies and states should immediately require identity verification for all welfare applicants — a commonsense fraud-prevention measure that could save taxpayers nearly $30 billion over the next 10 years.
Identity verification for welfare is, frankly, long overdue. And American taxpayers are way past the honor system when it comes to fraud.
In the rush of government spending during the COVID pandemic, scammers and thieves stole an unconscionable $400 billion. Today, at least 10 cents out of every dollar in food stamps reportedly goes to waste and fraud, and it’s more than 20 cents on the dollar in Medicaid. Over the next decade, Medicaid fraud alone could cost taxpayers more than $2 trillion.
Despite that, federal regulations do not require states to verify the identity of Medicaid applicants except in narrow circumstances related to citizenship.
The Trump administration deserves immense credit for finally taking steps to address fraud and corruption, from criminal crackdowns, to an official White House task force, to actual funding consequences for fraud-friendly states like Minnesota and California.
This has been a welcome departure from the Biden years, when the federal government actually encouraged states to accept “self-attestation” for eligibility criteria, and to allow trust-based eligibility determinations with verification only after the benefits started flowing. As you can imagine, this has been highly lucrative for scammers — but humiliating for both the taxpayers who pay the price and the truly needy who depend on the programs.
One scheme in Illinois billed $75 million in false Medicaid claims for alcohol and drug treatment services, including for a patient who had already been declared brain dead. The stolen funds were used to purchase luxury vehicles, real estate, diamonds, and a 42-foot yacht christened “Butt Nekkid” that was docked in a Chicago harbor.
Another scheme billed $67 million for behavioral health services that were never provided, with the money instead going to purchase of luxury cars, jewelry, watches and deposits in brokerage accounts.
A fraud scheme in New York billed Medicaid $35 million for ambulatory services to and from made-up addresses, funding the purchase of multiple investment properties.
Each of these were caught and prosecuted by President Trump’s Department of Justice, but each first had to rise to the level of tens of millions of dollars in fraud. And all of it was preventable.
Two recent audits discovered just how easy it is for scammers to access taxpayer money.
First, the U.S. Department of Agriculture collected food stamps data from 29 individual state agencies, uncovering a laundry list of ineligible and duplicate recipients. Nearly a quarter of a million were receiving duplicate benefits from the same state, and more than 100,000 people were receiving food stamps in multiple states. When checked against Social Security records, 185,000 recipients were discovered to be deceased, and more than 440,000 recipients (totaling nearly a billion dollars in benefits) had used a “dummy Social Security number” to sign up, such as 111-11-1111 or 999-99-9999.
Second, the U.S. Government Accountability Office ran a stress test of the ObamaCare health insurance marketplace, HealthCare.gov, by applying for subsidized coverage using 20 fictitious applications. Nineteen of the 20 made-up applications were approved for subsidized coverage, and 18 of the 20 were still receiving coverage as of the day the report was issued. The report also identified nearly 70,000 Social Security numbers that were used to access more than a year’s worth of advanced premium tax credits in a single plan year — the federal marketplace “does not prohibit multiple enrollments per SSN to help ensure that the actual SSN-holder can enroll in insurance coverage in cases of identity theft or data entry errors.”
Yes, identity theft is a massive problem. An estimated one in five Americans have already experienced it in their lifetimes. But the solution isn’t to allow fraud to go on until it is discovered, or to allow fraudsters the presumption of innocence until they are caught.
In every other part of our lives, Americans are tracked and scanned and verified. This is the age of Ring cameras, CAPTCHA and internet cookies. But suddenly, when it comes to welfare programs, we’re on horseback in the Wild West?
Taxpayers are asked to verify their identities routinely. To protect their hard-earned dollars, it is time that policymakers require welfare applicants to do the same.
Michael Greibrok is a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Fraud Verification WelfareCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Comments: Link copiedMore Opinions - Finance News
See All
Opinions - Finance Kevin Warsh’s mission: reviving the era of monetary restraint by Alvaro Vargas Llosa, opinion contributor 2 days ago Opinions - Finance / 2 days ago 
