How do we maintain and protect social programs?

I don't think anyone would argue that social programs are unimportant. They are very important. Given that, how do we protect them from deliberate fraudsters and abusers? How do we protect them from well-meaning incompetents who don't design and administer them properly?

I don't know how much would be saved by eliminating fraud. It's probably quite a bit. But there would be two big wins if fraud were drastically reduced or eliminated. First, obviously, the social programs would have more money to serve those who need and deserve them according to law. Second, it would undercut politicians trying to dismantle and politically undermine social programs as "rife with fraud."

Fraud probably has the simplest solution of the problem of defending social programs. Drastically increase the risk reward ratio. Any fraud against a social program, for example, could be punishable by ten times the current punishment. A fine of $1,000 becomes a fine of $10,000. A jail term of two years becomes a term of twenty. It may seem harsh to some, but it wouldn't take that many fraudsters experiencing harsh sentences and fines for them to realize it's just not worth it trying to defraud social programs.

But, what is there to do about waste and abuse? I think those are caused mostly by incompetence and, like fraud, greed. I think the solution boils down to increasing competence. For that, we may need something like AI. AI can review large amounts of data, unlike people. Also, unlike people, AI is not vulnerable to greed or social pressure. AI might, for example, detect overuse of non-generic medications by some companies or excessive billing. It could flag the problems, and people could then take over to resolve them.

Anyway, my two cents. I really see social programs as fundamentally important. If anything, they are becoming more important. We have to be serious about them.