An inspector general’s audit said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service used communications contractors for work that should have been performed by public servants.
If successful, the move would permanently end the health insurance program popularly known as Obamacare and wipe out coverage for as many as 23 million Americans.
White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney wants to see if the Medicare chief Seema Verma and the health secretary, Alex M. Azar II, can still work together.
A federal judge said the president had vastly exceeded his legal authority in reducing payments to hospitals for drugs given to Medicare beneficiaries.
Democrats dream of expanding Medicare, but struggle to define the role of the popular private plans that now cover more than one-third of the 60 million Medicare beneficiaries.