Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday announced the purge of 189,000 subsidized Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP enrollments for deceased persons or duplicate enrollees, saying the move would stop more than $1 billion in erroneous payments to insurance companies annually.

"In 2026, CMS [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] identified 189,000 subsidized enrollments involving duplicate Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP coverage on record showing the enrollee has died," he said in a press conference. "CMS acted to remove improper subsidies in all these cases."

Kennedy stated that the purge would save taxpayers $738 million in 2026 alone and that future savings would reach an annualized rate of $1.5 billion.

"Each of those figures represents a payment that would otherwise have gone to an insurance company, not to an American citizen," he added. He further highlighted that CMS had contacted the enrollees or their estates to give them 30 days to address any potential mistakes.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.