Ben Zdencanovic

Assistant Professor of U.S. History, University of Cambridge

Federal agents execute a search in December 2025 tied to potential Medicaid fraud in Bloomington, Minn. Christopher Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images

August 3, 2026

Trump administration is withholding more than $1B in Medicaid funds from California and Minnesota, in latest example of weaponizing real and imagined fraud

Ben Zdencanovic, University of Cambridge

For six decades, politicians have blurred the distinction between protecting Medicaid from abuse and using abuse to discredit Medicaid itself.

President Lyndon B. Johnson, left, next to former President Harry S. Truman, signs into law the measure creating Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. AP Photo

March 18, 2025

A brief history of Medicaid and America’s long struggle to establish a health care safety net

Ben Zdencanovic, University of California, Los Angeles

Left out of FDR’s New Deal, the health insurance program for the poor was finally established in 1965.

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Location: Cambridge, England, U.K.
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Joined March 6, 2025