President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has a new target in its crosshairs. A study released Monday by the Paragon Health Institute found that Medicaid shelled out $1.1 trillion in improper payments from 2015 to 2024. That’s double the official $543 billion estimate, exposing a decade of unchecked waste under Obama and Biden.

The numbers are jaw-dropping. Paragon’s report blames lax eligibility checks—states didn’t verify who qualified, and federal audits were spotty. Improper payments hit $31 billion in 2024 alone, down from $80 billion in 2021, but the decade’s total is a gut punch to every American footing the bill.

Trump’s team isn’t sitting idle. DOGE, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has already cut $100 billion in federal fat and gained access to Medicare and Medicaid payment systems last month. “This is where the big money fraud is happening,” Musk posted on X, a sentiment conservatives echo as they demand accountability.

The study’s timing aligns with Trump’s Tuesday address to Congress—82 percent approved—where he pushed tax cuts and efficiency. Medicaid’s mess, Paragon says, stems from Obama-era gaps in oversight and Biden’s failure to audit eligibility, letting billions slip through to ineligible recipients.

Republicans see blood in the water. Posts on X call it “criminal”—$4,300 per household over ten years, per Rep. Chip Roy’s math. With the national debt at $36.5 trillion, conservatives argue this is exactly why Trump tapped DOGE to gut waste and save the economy from collapse.

Democrats downplay it. Rep. Becca Balint claimed on CNN last month, “Medicaid is a very tight program. There is not a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse.” Paragon’s data—$1.1 trillion—blows that out of the water. Even Rep. Seth Moulton admitted changes might be “acceptable,” but conservatives say it’s too little, too late.

The waste isn’t just numbers—it’s real pain. Medicaid’s $880 billion yearly tab in 2023, split 69 percent federal and 31 percent state, props up 80 million enrollees. When $1.1 trillion vanishes over a decade, that’s cash not reaching families who need it, all while taxpayers bleed.

Trump’s already moving the needle elsewhere—SBA loans to illegals axed, FEMA cleaned up after bias scandals. Now, conservatives want Medicaid’s fraud machine dismantled. DOGE’s got read-only access to CMS systems, pinpointing where the leaks are—next step is plugging them.

This isn’t about tweaking a program—it’s about stopping a trillion-dollar heist. Trump’s crew has the mandate—97 percent of GOP viewers backed his speech. Republicans say it’s time to end the gravy train, protect honest Americans, and make government work again.