Dr. Oz is wrong: Medicaid enrollees aren’t automatically registered to vote

With the Trump administration auditing Minnesota’s Medicaid program for fraud, Dr. Mehmet Oz said Medicaid confers voting rights on its enrollees.

"By federal law, if you sign someone up for Medicaid, you also give them the right to vote," Oz said in a Jan. 6 interview on Fox News’ "Ingraham Angle." "It's true for (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) as well. As you give out social services, you also get them registered to vote. So you're building up a very partisan group of individuals. This is political patronage at the expense of Medicaid."

Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services  is wrong about Medicaid registration being linked to the right to vote. A 1993 law requires most states to offer voter registration at public assistance offices, but the right to vote stems from other laws. And his comment that voter registration tied to Medicaid amounts to "political patronage" is not backed by evidence.

Oz made the comment after talking about Medicaid fraud in Minnesota.

Investigators have identified fraud committed by dozens of Minnesotans who they say have misused federal dollars, including Medicaid, for housing, services for people with autism spectrum disorder and money for children’s nutrition. So far, the charges add up to hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud, but officials have said the amount could be higher.

The majority of the defendants are Somalis. President Donald Trump cited the fraud schemes to support his immigration enforcement agenda; most Minnesota Somalis are U.S. citizens. 

We contacted Oz’s office to ask for his evidence, including that voter registration at Medicaid offices creates a partisan group of people and is political patronage, and did not get a response.

Federal law requires public assistance agencies to provide voter registration

Oz was likely referring to the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to provide voter registration at multiple government offices, including those that register people for public assistance or provide services to people with disabilities. Voting advocates backed the law in hopes of boosting voting among low-income people. The same law applies to motor vehicle agencies and military recruitment offices. State compliance has varied. 

What counts as a public assistance office? The list is long, but it includes federal programs that provide food, infant formula and health insurance such as Medicaid. For example, California has about two dozen agencies, including the DMV, that offer voter registration services. 

Six states including Minnesota are exempt from the National Voter Registration Act because at the time it passed they either had no voter-registration requirements or allowed Election Day voter registration. In Minnesota, voter registration materials may be available at offices, but no one is automatically registered to vote when applying for Medicaid, a Minnesota Secretary of State spokesperson told PolitiFact.

In practice, few people register to vote while applying for Medicaid.

About 1% of voter registrations happened at public assistance offices before the 2024 election, according to page 165 of a 300-page June 2025 U.S. Election Assistance Commission report. Most people register to vote elsewhere — for example, at the DMV.

Despite Oz’s statement, receiving Medicaid doesn’t confer the right to vote — those rights are included in state laws and the U.S. Constitution.

When people apply for Medicaid, officials collect citizenship data, which is why advocates sought to use that program to expand voter registration. Some immigrants legally in the U.S. may be eligible for Medicaid, but the majority have to wait five years before accessing it. Only U.S. citizens, however, may vote in federal elections. 

"All Medicaid is required to do under NVRA is to assist someone who wishes to register to vote," said Dan Meuse, a fellow at the Institute for Responsive Government, an organization that aims to make government more efficient and accessible.

The Institute for Responsive Government, along with multiple voting rights organizations, urged the Biden administration in 2024 to work with states to implement automatic voter registration systems to make it easier for people applying for Medicaid to register to vote. The administration took no action, Meuse said. 

Massachusetts, one of the few states with automatic voter registration for Medicaid applicants, allows people to opt out of registering to vote. The state collects citizenship information from applicants and screens them before registration.

Oz’s statement about political patronage lacks evidence

Political patronage is when a politician or group offers people something of value in exchange for their vote. The NVRA says no person who provides voter registration services can seek to influence applicants’ political preference.

June 2025 survey data from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy think tank, showed no dramatic differences in percentages of people from each political party who received Medicaid. Thirty-one percent of Democrats, 29% of independents and 22% of Republicans said they had been on Medicaid.

Jamila Michener, a Cornell University government professor and Medicaid expert, wrote that Medicaid beneficiaries "have not wielded political power" to insulate the program from political threat. 

"Enabling people on Medicaid to vote is about strengthening democracy, not about gaining partisan advantage," Michener told PolitiFact.

The Pew Research Center found that low-income people are less likely to vote. They may have more obstacles to voting than people with higher incomes, such as less flexible work schedules and lack of reliable transportation.

Our ruling

Oz said, "By federal law, if you sign someone up for Medicaid, you also give them the right to vote .…This is political patronage at the expense of Medicaid."

The National Voter Registration Act requires states to provide voter registration services at many agencies, including those that provide Medicaid. That law doesn’t grant Medicaid enrollees the right to vote, nor does it mean people signing up for Medicaid are automatically registered to vote. Other laws, most notably the U.S. Constitution, give U.S. citizens the right to vote.

Oz said the system promotes political patronage. But survey data shows no dramatic differences in percentages of people from each political party enrolled in Medicaid. 

We rate this statement False.

RELATED: Trump officials tout Minnesota fraud charges. Most started before he took office.