CW: Fraud
There is something unsettling about the national conversation around Medicaid. We hear constantly about people who should not be getting something: providers submitting fraudulent bills, companies collecting money for care they never delivered. People are exploiting a program meant for those who need it. There is another reality. Disabled people cannot find caregivers.
That is the quieter story emerging from Ohio, where a crackdown on Medicaid fraud has collided with an already strained home healthcare system. Gov. Mike DeWine imposed a six-month moratorium on new Medicaid home-care providers while the state increased scrutiny. More than 1,100 pending applications from businesses and individuals were denied because of the moratorium.
The fraud is real. Ohio suspended payments to 49 home healthcare providers whose billing patterns raised concerns, while prosecutors announced charges in alleged Medicaid fraud schemes totaling more than $42 million. However there is a difference between investigating people who exploit the program and making care harder to get.
For disabled people, that difference is deeply personal. Maria Matzik, who has a progressive disease and uses a ventilator, found two people willing to fill weekend shifts. The moratorium prevented them from becoming providers. Justin Martin, 30, who has cerebral palsy, bought a condo after years of saving but still needs to hire more home health aides before he can move in.
I know how quickly things can change. This spring, MassHealth took away my night PCA hours entirely. One day, I had the overnight support I needed to live safely. Then it was gone. I spent nearly two months gathering paperwork, writing appeals, calling offices, and explaining again and again that I require overnight care. The process was exhausting and dehumanizing.
I eventually won and got my hours back. It is bittersweet to celebrate after spending months proving your needs to people who should already understand them, especially when you know services that keep you safe can disappear with little warning.
My experience was not the same as what disabled Ohioans are facing, but the underlying fragility is familiar. That is what makes Ohio more than a state story. As the Trump administration intensifies its focus on fraud, waste, and abuse, disabled people are dealing systems where necessary support can already be remarkably fragile.
Fraud should be investigated, and public programs should be protected. But protecting Medicaid must also mean protecting the people whose independence depends on it. Home healthcare determines whether someone can get out of bed, go to work, sleep safely through the night, or live in their own home.
Martin explained that reality: “Medicaid is the program that allows me to be around you. A world without Medicaid is a world without me.”
As America wages its war on Medicaid fraud, that is the part we cannot afford to forget. A program can be protected on paper while becoming harder to rely on. The consequences will not be measured only in dollars saved or fraud prevented. They will be measured in freedom lost by disabled people who were never doing anything wrong.
Source:
Hixenbaugh, Mike. “Ohio’s Crackdown on Medicaid Fraud Cuts Off Care for Some Disabled People.” NBC News, 26 Oct. 2026, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ohio-crackdown-medicaid-fraud-cuts-care-disabled-people-rcna605023.