Free Republic

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — At the start of 2022, Thomas Marshall weighed 311 pounds. He had been hospitalized 10 times in five years, including six surgeries. He had an open wound on his left leg that refused to heal — made worse by living in a dirty, moldy house with five other people, two ball pythons, four Chihuahuas and a cage full of rats. Marshall’s story is part of a radical rethinking of the relationship between housing and health care in the U.S. For decades, Medicaid, the joint state and federal health insurance program for people with disabilities or low...

The mainstream media coverage concerning President Biden’s remarks about Social Security during his State of the Union address and the Republican reaction has been remarkable in its ability to miss the point. Pundits sparred over whether the Republicans or Democrats won, when the real story is who lost in this sideshow. After all, it is the average, hard-working American who has paid into and therefore deserves Social Security. Unfortunately, everyday Americans who need to know whether or not they can rely on the trust fund received no worthy news coverage, and likely won’t for the next decade. During his speech,...

President Joe Biden’s (D) administration is reportedly allowing states to use Medicaid for food and nutritional counseling, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported Sunday that policy makers are trying to determine whether “food as medicine” programs can enhance health and also save money, the outlet said: A growing body of research suggests that addressing food insecurity can improve health as well as deliver savings by reducing medical visits, the need for medication, or by helping control serious illness. The programs have also appealed to some GOP lawmakers who believe states should have more control over their Medicaid...

President Joe Biden has been accusing Republicans of trying to cut Social Security and Medicare, but it was Biden who proposed that very thing back in 1995 when he was a senator debating the Balanced Budget Amendment. In a speech on the Senate floor on Jan. 31, 1995, then-Sen. Biden said that Congress should be honest with the American people about how much something will cost, and how Congress intends to balance the budget. […]I look at the polls out there. For example, I want to go on record, and I am up for reelection this year, and I will...

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) must provide the state of Florida with documentation on why it supports gender transitions for minors and any communication with its members about that decision-making process, a District Court ruled. The AAP is involved in a lawsuit against Florida over a new rule established last year that prohibits the use of Medicaid funds on sex changes and other transgender-related care. The AAP signed on in support of the plaintiffs, leading Florida to subpoena it and numerous other organizations for information on their policies toward individuals with gender dysphoria and how those policies were developed,...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its rule change allowing immigrants into the country who will be dependent on welfare, according to documents obtained by Breitbart News. Federal immigration law has required a “public-charge” determination for immigrants, which bars them from staying in the country if they are likely to use welfare programs like food stamps, Medicaid, or government housing aid.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A “secret shopper” accountability study shows that medical patients can’t readily schedule appointments by phone through Medicaid providers in New Mexico, even as the state and federal government spend $8.8 billion annually on the health care program that serves nearly half of state residents. When primary health care providers were reached by phone, more than one-quarter were either not accepting new patients or had left the listed medical practice. The study found that patients who were able to connect with Medicaid care providers confronted waiting lists or appointment times that exceeded contractual requirements. The consumer-protection...

Lawmakers in several conservative-led states—including Montana, Wyoming, Missouri, and Mississippi—are expected to consider proposals to provide a year of continuous health coverage to new mothers enrolled in Medicaid. Medicaid beneficiaries nationwide are guaranteed continuous postpartum coverage during the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency. But momentum has been building for states to extend the default 60-day required coverage period ahead of the emergency's eventual end. Approximately 42% of births nationwide are covered under Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for low-income people, and extending postpartum coverage aims to reduce the risk of pregnancy-related deaths and illnesses by ensuring that new mothers'...

The state of Georgia is preparing to offer a limited number of lower-income people Medicaid coverage in exchange for 80 hours of work or volunteering a month. The Biden administration surprisingly decided not to appeal a federal court ruling that granted Georgia the right to try the work-for-Medicaid program — a program first approved during the Trump administration for 12 states but later canceled by Biden. The program will actually cost significantly more than standard Medicaid coverage and the program’s strict requirements won’t cover a lot of Georgians. But Kemp believes it’s worth doing. “The best-case scenario is that some...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota voters on Tuesday approved the expansion of Medicaid health insurance to tens of thousands of low-income residents through a constitutional amendment. The majority vote to support Constitutional Amendment D removes South Dakota from a list of 12 states that have not expanded eligibility for the government health insurance program to people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level — currently about $18,800 for an individual or $38,300 for a family of four. The Republican-controlled Legislature had declined to expand Medicaid eligibility under the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act, and Gov. Kristi...

The latest front in the Biden administration’s crusade to bypass the congressional appropriations process and expand the welfare state comes in the form of the medicalization of everyday life through Medicaid coverage of “health-related social needs.” The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently approved three section 1115 demonstration initiatives that allow Oregon, Massachusetts and Arizona to use Medicaid funds to pay nonmedical expenses such as housing supports (rent, relocation expenses, furniture), meals, air conditioning and air purifiers “during climate emergencies” and transportation services. CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure argues such measures are needed “to address the root social causes of...

Mayne I'm making mountain out of mole hills and I just wanted to vent on something here on a simple observation I have made on society today versus what it was say from the 1980's and before. I was born in 1966 so I'm 56 years old. As time goes on, I am having more and more trouble making sense of the way the world is going today and I just scratch my head or just end up giving the old "South Park" 1000 meters stare while staving off a mental "Blue Screen of Death." I was going to type...

Florida has moved to prohibit transgender residents from using Medicaid to pay for gender-affirming care. The big picture: Florida joined at least 10 other states — including Texas, Arizona and Missouri— in barring residents from using Medicaid to pay for the medications and surgeries prescribed to those with gender dysphoria, the Washington Post reports. These medical treatments often include hormone therapy and puberty blockers.

President Biden told union workers at the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia, that Republicans want to get rid of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid based on a proposal by National Republican Senatorial Conference Chairman Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), which calls for all federal legislation to sunset in five years. “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again,” Scott’s proposal states. […] Biden attributed Scott’s proposal to the Republican Party despite Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-S.C.) saying months ago that such a proposal will not be part of the Republican agenda....

CHICAGO -- At least 29 were shot, one fatally, across Chicago since Friday evening, including a man wounded by a security guard during a shootout at Millennium Park. A man was found fatally shot Sunday morning in a Gresham apartment complex on the South Side. The man, 24, was found by a tenant with two gunshot wounds to the head in the entry way of the complex in the 7800-block of South Laflin Street about 1:30 a.m., Chicago police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A 22-year-old man was trying to enter Millennium Park about 7:20 p.m. Friday...

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has negotiated a secret deal to give Kaiser Permanente a special Medicaid contract that would allow the health care behemoth to expand its reach in California and largely continue selecting the enrollees it wants, which other health plans say leaves them with a disproportionate share of the program’s sickest and costliest patients. The deal, hammered out behind closed doors between Kaiser Permanente and senior officials in Newsom’s office, could complicate a long-planned and expensive transformation of Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, which covers roughly 14 million low-income Californians. It has infuriated executives of other managed-care insurance...

Denying natural immunity in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) vaccine mandates is “unprecedented in modern history,” a prominent public health expert said. Dr. Scott Atlas, a former White House COVID-19 Task Force adviser during the Trump administration, made the remarks after the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decide to uphold the CMS vaccine mandates in a Thursday ruling. He told The Epoch Times that the ruling is “another serious denial of scientific fact” specifically mentioning the denial of natural immunity in CMS vaccine mandates.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in a policy reversal, announced on Dec. 28 that it would start enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate to facilities in half the U.S. states, where the mandate hasn’t been judicially enjoined.CMS modified the compliance dates for the vaccine mandates. Facilities that receive Medicaid or Medicare funding must comply with the mandate’s first phase, meaning that all health care staff has to have received the first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine by Jan. 27, 2022—or 30 days after the CMS memorandum (pdf) was issued.Those...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The U.S. government has approved California’s overhaul of the nation’s largest insurance program for low-income and disabled residents, officials said Wednesday, a decision that among other things allows Medicaid money to be spent on housing-related services as the most populous state struggles with homelessness and a lack of affordable housing. Aside from covering one of every three Californians, Medi-Cal covers more than half of school-age children, half of births in California, and more than two of every three patient days in long-term care facilities, officials said. The goal of the new approach is to prioritize prevention...

Build Back Better is the next step in the increasing institutionalization of small children.The massive and historic entitlement-and-spending bill, Build Back Better (H.R. 5376), includes the “largest expansion” of government education since public high schools were established by the states more than “100 years ago,” according to President Biden. The bill was passed by the House at the end of November and is now the intense focus of the Democrat Senate and the Biden administration for passage before Christmas. Under the proposed legislation, the federal government would expand and then regulate not just public education but a good portion of...