Fraud reform must target criminals, not cut off disability care

President Trump has made rooting out fraud in the social safety net a top priority this year, putting Vice President JD Vance in charge of a new “war on fraud.” That focus is overdue. Fraud in public benefits doesn’t just waste taxpayer dollars — it corrodes trust in the very programs designed to help people in crisis and diverts resources from those who truly need them.

But there’s a quieter danger: When government responds to fraud with blunt instruments, the people who rely on these programs can become collateral damage. In disability services, the human toll can be worse than the budget impact.

Minnesota has offered a painful case study. Take Janelle “Sky” Hansen, a young woman with autism. She lived in an apartment through a Medicaid-funded program called Integrated Community Supports), meant to help adults with disabilities live independently with daily, one-on-one assistance. Hansen’s provider, American Home Health Care, was paid Medicaid dollars intended to support her housing and services. Yet the company stopped paying her rent, even as it continued to collect Medicaid funds from the state. Hansen, who did nothing wrong, was evicted and has spent months homeless.

According to KARE11’s investigation, Hansen’s records reflected a daily billing rate of roughly $421 for about 12 hours of services per day — services Hansen says she rarely received. State Medicaid billing data showed the provider has been paid more than $2.2 million in public funds since 2022. Whatever the final legal outcome, the outcome for Hansen is already catastrophic: She lost the critical stability Medicaid was supposed to secure.

Jennifer Larson, the mother of a son with autism and the founder of the Holland Center for Autism in Minnesota, testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in........

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