Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi has issued his strongest remarks to date toward his rival for the Democratic nominee for governor, Eliot Spitzer. His press office just put out this statement:

SUOZZI TO SPITZER: ADMIT THAT MEDICAID FRAUD IS A PROBLEM

Attorney General Claims Only 2% Waste, Fraud, and Abuse In State Medicaid System

CARLE PLACE, NY-Democratic candidate for Governor Tom Suozzi today called on Eliot Spitzer to admit that waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicaid system is a serious problem and costs taxpayers billions of dollars.

"We cannot fight the billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse in the State Medicaid system if those entrusted with rooting it out are too afraid of offending their insider friends to admit that we have a serious problem," said Suozzi.

You can read the entire statement here.

In the statement, the Suozzi campaign references this story in today's Daily News. In it Spitzer says, "Ninety-eight percent of that (Medicaid) money, I would hazard to say, is spent where it's supposed to be."

Other numbers are at odds with Spitzer's estimate. According to this New York Times' piece from last year:

Officials who have spent their careers chasing unscrupulous doctors and other providers in New York Medicaid say the losses to taxpayers here are probably higher than typical estimates of overall health care fraud. The Government Accountability Office in Washington and others have estimated that 10 percent of all health care spending nationally is lost to "fraud and abuse."

Suozzi has been campaigning on the GAO's estimate, suggesting that the state could save up to $5 billion annually by cutting out waste and fraud.