GRASSLEY: WORKING FAMILIES TAX CUTS LAW SUPPORTS IOWA'S FAMILIES, FARMERS AND MORE

The following information was released by Iowa Senator Charles Grassley:

Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Senate President Pro Tempore

"How the Working Families Tax Cuts Law Is Stopping Medicaid Fraud"

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Medicaid is intended to provide health care for the most vulnerable, including [the] disabled, elderly and low-income women and children.

Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Inspector General published an audit that found millions of dollars were paid out from state Medicaid programs to Managed Care Organizations for deceased enrollees.

State Medicaid programs hire insurance companies in the form of a Managed Care Organization to manage the claims and care of patients. States pay the insurance company a per-member, per-month fee.

However, it's the responsibility of the state, each of the 50 states, to have an accurate enrollment list. [As] you can probably figure out, otherwise, it will give the insurance company money for a patient who is no longer eligible for Medicaid, or in some cases, no longer alive.

The Health and Human Services Inspector General found that, since 2016, Medicaid agencies improperly paid $289 million for deceased enrollees.

In the Inspector General's audit, the audit sampled 100 payments.

Of those payments, 49% were improperly paid or the dollars only clawed back after the Inspector General raised concerns to the respective states.

The report found that Medicare agencies continued to pay for deceased enrollees because they didn't have access to death data, failed to check or use the data or didn't check the data often enough.

The Working Families Tax Act, signed by President Trump on July the 4th, puts an end to this fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicaid program. It establishes solutions to stop sending payments out for deceased enrollees and providers.

I look forward to [ensuring] HHS implements this part of the law quickly and effectively, so we don't read more Inspector General reports about this issue.

I just mentioned the Working Families Tax Cuts law that the president signed on July the 4th. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about that law, so I want to say something in addition to Medicaid waste of money.

That is that that tax law, the Working Families Tax Act, prevented the $4.7 trillion tax increase that would have automatically happened on December 31, when we [would have gone] back to the old tax laws prior to the 2017 tax bill.

For Iowans, I've seen two different figures.

One study showed that that would have meant a $2,300 [tax] increase for families in Iowa, if we had not stopped that tax increase.

Another study showed that it saved Iowans $3,100.

Either way, $2,000 or $3,000 is money that Iowans could not afford to pay in additional taxes.

But this bill did not include just taxes.

It's a very comprehensive piece of legislation that increased support for our family farmers.

It has energy policy that has brought down gas prices tremendously since President Trump signed that bill.

It has improvement in education programs.

It has health issues in it, and it has law enforcement issues in it.

And I'm not sure I have named all of the parts of the bill, but I hope people filling out their tax forms in 2026 and [who] don't have to pay additional taxes understand that that tax bill did a lot for the...many segments of the economy, that the president ought to be complimented for, and those of us in the Senate that voted for it could likewise let them know that we were worried about tax increase.