The hospitals and doctors aren’t the only people ripping off the medical system and causing costs to skyrocket (see Item 2 above). The states are also bilking federal taxpayers out of tens of billions of dollars, as we reported last week.

No governor is more guilty of this scam than Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

So we’d like to congratulate Dr. Mehmet Oz, who administers the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, for threatening to cut off federal aid to Minnesota if Walz’s administration doesn’t address what Oz calls the state’s “clear dereliction of duty.”

Oz has frozen enrollment in some abused programs and demanded Walz issue an action plan to prevent fraud: “Either fix this in 60 days or start looking under your couch for spare change, because we’re done footing the bill for your incompetence.”

We love this idea. But Dr. Oz: why stop with Minnesota? Any state, red or blue, that is caught defrauding federal taxpayers should be penalized by being cut out of the program.