A U.S. government agency found that $2.7 trillion worth of Medicare and Medicaid payments were improperly sent overseas.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan congressional agency, published two reports in 2024 that found, generally speaking, improper payments made by the U.S. government since fiscal year 2003 totaled an estimated $2.7 trillion.
However, the GAO reports didn’t claim that any percentage of the $2.7 trillion went to people overseas.
It’s unclear how much of the $2.7 trillion in improper payments were related to Medicare and Medicaid.
In February 2025, a rumor spread that the Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee of the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee discovered that $2.7 trillion worth of improper Medicare and Medicaid payments had been sent overseas.
Users on X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads and TikTok echoed the rumor (archived, archived, archived, archived, archived, archived).
David J Harris Jr., host of “The Pulse“ podcast on the right-leaning news network Newsmax, posted on X: “DOGE subcommittee discovered $2.7 TRILLION in improper payments in medicare & medicaid overseas to people who should not have gotten it. Fraud, waste, and abuse uncovered DAILY.“
The DOGE subcommittee is different from the Department of Government Efficiency (also known as DOGE), an initiative of the Trump administration, though the subcommittee pledged to “actively work with” Trump’s DOGE to “root out waste” in the government.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who appears to head Trump’s DOGE (though he holds no official title as such), also amplified the rumor, calling the payments “the biggest fraud operation in human history”:
However, no evidence exists that the DOGE subcommittee made this discovery itself. The nonpartisan “congressional watchdog agency” known as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) first reported the improper payments. A subcommittee post-hearing review (archived) published on Feb. 19 cited the GAO when referencing the $2.7 trillion figure, writing:
Federal agencies reported an estimated $236 billion in improper payments in 2023 alone, and $2.7 trillion since FY 2003. In addition, the Government Accountability Office estimates the Government could be losing between $233 and $521 billion annually to fraud.
What are ‘improper payments’?
The GAO published two related reports in March and June 2024 estimating that improper payments since the 2003 fiscal year totaled “about $2.7 trillion” (archived, archived). The agency defines “improper payments” as those that “should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount.” It added that “improper payments” included overpayments and underpayments as well as unknown payments and technically improper payments. The unknown category refers to those that cannot be determined as either proper or improper because of insufficient documentation or a lack thereof. Technically improper payments are those in which recipients received funds they were entitled to but the payment failed to follow all applicable statutes or regulations. The GAO also notes that not all improper payments are due to fraud. For example, payments may be determined to be improper due to error or lack of documentation.
(Improper Payments: Information on Agencies’ Fiscal Year 2023 Estimates)
The GAO’s reports did not mention how much of the total $2.7 trillion figure included improper payment estimates related to Medicare and Medicaid. However, one GAO report detailed the estimates for the 2023 fiscal year and showed that Medicare and Medicaid made up 22% and 21%, respectively, of the estimated total of $236 billion in improper payments for that single year.
(Improper Payments: Information on Agencies’ Fiscal Year 2023 Estimates)
There was no mention in the two GAO reports of any part of the total $2.7 trillion being wrongfully paid to people overseas.
