Fraud in government programs is often treated like an urban legend — something that happens in faraway blue cities run by corrupt political machines. But the truth is more unsettling: Some of the most brazen theft of taxpayer money is happening in places governed by Republicans, right under their noses.

Consider Ohio.

At one address in Columbus, investigators found 94 different companies registered in the same building. The windows were covered. The offices appeared empty. Yet, according to The Daily Wire investigative team led by Luke Rosiak, that single address has billed taxpayers more than $66 million.

This is not a minor accounting error. It is not mere "waste." It is a system being exploited.

Rosiak's reporting exposes an ecosystem of "Medicaid millionaires": not the poor recipients of benefits but the companies and middlemen who profit off them. Under the guise of "home health care," Ohio pays people to visit Medicaid beneficiaries' homes to perform "homemaking" services — cooking, cleaning and chores — tasks that don't require medical training and often don't receive meaningful oversight.

Ohio spent roughly $1 billion on home health care in 2024. The incentives are obvious: If government is handing out checks for loosely defined services, the people best positioned to get rich are not the disabled or elderly. It's the billing operations.

The pattern is almost comical in its boldness: Cover the windows, hang a sheet of paper with a generic company name ending in "Home Health LLC," and if someone asks questions, claim the employees "stepped out." Why cover the windows? Because there is nothing inside.

Dig into the companies and you find unpaid taxes, shady ownership structures and a bizarre number of LLCs registered in unrelated industries. The deeper you look, the clearer it becomes that government is not equipped to monitor who it is writing million-dollar checks to.

The business model is disturbingly simple. A 40-year-old man becomes an "employee" of a Medicaid-billing firm and gets paid to "care for" his 65-year-old mother. But the only patient is Mom, and the only person who could confirm whether services are being provided is Mom herself. If she doesn't want to rat out her son — or if she's receiving a kickback — the state has no practical way to verify anything.

When Rosiak questioned one operator about what his company did, he was met with threats. The man reportedly dismissed the inquiry and then pivoted to the modern all-purpose defense: "I'm going to tell everybody you guys are racist."

And there it is — the magic trick.

Steal millions. Exploit the system. Then accuse anyone investigating you of bigotry.

Unlike food stamps and other capped welfare programs, this Medicaid service has no meaningful ceiling. It expands as far as doctors are willing to sign forms. One doctor willing to approve enough paperwork can bankrupt a state.

For decades, the public couldn't see this because Medicaid billing data was a black box. That changed in February, when the Department of Justice quietly released new data. In one case, a landlord whose buildings housed hundreds of Medicaid companies billed the federal government $250 million.

Now the question is whether leaders will act.

Ohio has Republican leadership, and nationally President Donald Trump has made waste, fraud and abuse a central theme of his administration. That focus matters, because this problem won't be solved with speeches or "task forces." It requires audits, subpoenas, prosecutions and real accountability.

If government programs are going to exist, the bare minimum requirement is that they serve the people they claim to serve.

Right now, Medicaid is serving scammers — and taxpayers are footing the bill.

Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show," and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author. To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Hush Naidoo Jade Photography at Unsplash