Medi-Cal expanded coverage for tribal spiritual interventions, ceremonies, and herbal remedies in 2024.
By Catholics for Catholics
Want a Native-American “exorcism?” Go to California, where taxpayer-funded Medicaid will pay for it.
On Tuesday, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., inveighed against California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, which is being inspected by the Trump administration over fraud allegations, as Kennedy highlighted reports during a Tuesday hearing that the state covers “exorcisms” and other faith-based healing practices, according to a story by Fox News.
The issue is that Medi-Cal’s spending ways have encountered more probes as California’s Medicaid expenditures have more than doubled since 2019, rising from roughly $100.7 billion to a projected $222 billion in 2026.
The Trump administration last week suspended $1.4 billion in federal funding for California home health and hospice programs after Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force identified an estimated $600 million in suspected fraud within the state’s Medicaid system.
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— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) May 19, 2026
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But some of the use of the money can get, well, weird. Kennedy alleged during his line of questioning to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that taxpayer dollars were being used to cover the cost of “exorcisms,” a religious practice most commonly associated with the Catholic Church, as well as other indigenous spiritual practices.
“California’s got 12% of the population in the last 10 years,” Kennedy told Blanche. “They’re responsible for half of these new so-called health providers to provide “exorcisms” and other things. Now, what the hell are we doing about it? Why has this gone on for so long?”
A spokesperson for California Health and Human Services Agency denied that Medi-Cal covered “exorcisms.”
“It does cover federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-approved Traditional Health Care Practices, which are defined, identified, and credentialed by each Native American Tribe, Nation, Band, or Rancheria, and are rooted in cultural knowledge that has supported healing for generations,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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