Candace Taylor, 35, of Slidell, Louisiana was arrested last week for what state and local authorities are calling Medicaid fraud.
Attorney General Liz Murrill (R-Louisiana) went so far as to call Taylor the "Medicaid millionaire."
Among the government's accusations was that Taylor bought a Lamborghini while claiming government benefits for years.
"From 2021 through 2024, Ms. Taylor continued to transfer tens of thousands of dollars between her personal and business accounts, with personal inflows consistently exceeding the eligibility thresholds for Medicaid," an affidavit from The Louisiana Health Department directly states, according to Fox News.
Hayden Dublois, an analyst with The Foundation for Government Accountability (The FGA), says this is yet another example of rampant welfare fraud, waste, and abuse that we are seeing not only in Louisiana but across the country.
"In the Medicaid program alone, roughly one in every $5 spent on Medicaid is spent improperly, and that's a statistic that's just as true for Louisiana," says Dublois. "Roughly one out of every $5 spent on Medicaid in Louisiana is improper and most of that is due to eligibility errors or fraud of some sort."
Medicaid provides health insurance for low-income adults and children. The program is partially funded and primarily managed by state governments. The federal government establishes parameters for states to follow. However, each state administers their Medicaid program differently.
Dublois calls it a serious problem, especially for a program that has grown substantially in recent years.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act calls for Medicaid reforms to cut down on waste, fraud, and abuse. Critics of the bill or law said that it would mean people are not getting access to health care. Republicans said that's not true.
"In Louisiana alone, we're talking about a program that has ballooned up to about $17 billion, which is roughly 35% of everything the state spends," says Dublois. "So, when we see these incidents of welfare fraud, we know there's a lot more creeping behind the scenes that we're not catching and that makes it all the more important to engage in efforts to uncover and deter and prosecute these types of fraud."
