Free Republic

Los Angeles County introduced a 10.25 percent sales tax on Thursday, four months after voters approved Measure ER. The Essential Services Restoration Act (Measure ER) overwhelmingly passed in L.A. County earlier this year, raising the sales tax by a half-cent to support health care and other essential services – from 9.75 percent to 10.25 percent. “For every $100 in taxable purchases, Measure ER adds 50 cents in tax, bringing the total to $110.25,” noted NBC News. “The increase is temporary. Measure ER allows the tax to remain in effect for five years until Oct. 1, 2031 as it is projected...

Having health insurance is no guarantee of avoiding medical debt, according to a recent study.About one-third of working-age Americans who have health insurance also have outstanding medical bills or debt, according to a Sept. 17 survey conducted by Commonwealth Fund, a private healthcare foundation.That includes people with an employer-sponsored health plan, an individual health plan, or Obamacare, according to the report.Hospitals are the main creditors, the survey found. Sixty-four percent of insured people with medical debt said it was from hospital services such as inpatient care, outpatient care, and emergency department care.Routine care added to the debt for many of...

Analysis from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) reveals that hospitals used artificial intelligence (AI) tools to hike healthcare spending by nearly a billion dollars over a two-year-period. The Daily Caller reports that a new study from BCBSA shows that a major rise in patients being documented as having complex conditions led to $942 million in additional medical care costs for Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) companies between 2023 and ‌2025. Insurers and consumer advocates warn that these AI-fueled billing practices will ultimately push up insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for families and employers. The BCBSA’s report “raises...

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance will make an announcement on Obamacare fraud Tuesday morning at the White House, The Post has learned — after launching crackdowns that restricted funding for other federal healthcare programs. Vance has focused heavily on alleged theft of taxpayer money in multibillion-dollar medical programs in his role as Trump’s fraud czar — generally coupling allegations with action to block the distribution of funds deemed at-risk for misappropriation. The announcement comes as the Trump administration turns up the heat on President Barack Obama’s namesake health insurance overhaul, with President Trump vowing earlier this month to “stop...

Dick Cheney’s heart problems were never a national secret. I was Mr. Cheney’s cardiologist for 27 years, including his two terms as vice president. During his time in the White House, he needed stents, a defibrillator and medical treatment for an arrhythmia and a blood clot in his leg. After the defibrillator was implanted in his chest in 2001, he would frequently show visitors to his West Wing office a sample device provided to him by the manufacturer.

On July 20, 2026 the United States Department of Justice sent a letter to the University of California San Diego regarding the UCSD School of Medicine, stating that “[b]ased on its review of San Diego Med’s documents and data” the School of Medicine “has intentionally discriminated against applicants by granting and denying admission based on their race after the Supreme Court’s decision in” Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023) (“SFFA”).

The head of one the country’s top medical schools sparked outrage during a tense House hearing after refusing to say that only women can get pregnant. Dr. Sam Hawgood, chancellor of the University of California San Francisco, was pressed by Washington lawmakers Tuesday over the school’s guidelines against using the term “pregnant women,” while testifying about the impact of DEI initiatives in medical schools. “Doctor Hawgood, you see UCSF’s Classroom Guide, titled ‘Framework for Gender and Sex Concepts in Teaching,’ advises against using the term ‘pregnant women,'” Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois said. “Instead, it says to use ‘pregnant people.’...

Insider accounts reveal the scale of the health secretary's ambitions to curb childhood immunizations and unearth a link between vaccines and autism.A U.S. health secretary prepared to spend billions to seek a link between vaccines and autism. Vaccine skeptics shaping policy. A proposal to eliminate the entire federal immunization schedule for American children. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has brought a series of once-unthinkable public-health proposals to the highest levels of the Trump administration since becoming health secretary early last year, according to Reuters interviews with 16 current and former officials with direct knowledge of the discussions. The officials, from the...

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is introducing legislation aimed at shedding light on the financial impact illegal immigration has on America’s healthcare system by requiring hospitals that receive federal healthcare funding to collect and report patients’ immigration status in aggregate form. Roy’s proposal, titled the Illegal Alien Patient Reporting Act, would require hospitals participating in federal healthcare programs to include an immigration-status question during the patient intake process and submit quarterly reports to the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Homeland Security (DHS). The legislation would also make compliance a condition of participating in federal healthcare programs, meaning hospitals...

This horrifying discovery will shock you. It's 1982. Hank was sent to the property of Malvin Weisberg to pick up a shipping container that Malvin stopped making payments on. Malvin told the company that the reason he bought the container was so he could store [music] pool equipment for his backyard pool. Took a box up. It was so heavy as you saw it broke broke my winch. The container was way too heavy to just [music] have pool equipment inside.

A quiet Brooklyn storefront served as a key part of a $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme led by the Russian mob, a federal indictment charges — and could even have been backed by the Kremlin. The scheme was so brazen, one medical supply company linked to the outfit submitted bills totaling over $250 million for urinary catheters in 2023 alone, according to the feds. The number was so large it amounted to $50 million more than the combined spend of every other medical provider in the country on catheters that year. The scam started in 2022 when a Russia-based transnational...

Key takeaways: The declarations for drugs and biologics will end in 1 year and medical devices in 180 days. HHS said it will work with manufacturers seeking FDA approval or clearance through traditional regulatory pathways. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is moving to terminate COVID-19 emergency use authorization declarations for drugs, biologics and medical devices, the agency announced. “Americans deserve a regulatory system that is transparent, accountable and rooted in the rule of law,” Kennedy Jr. said in a press release. “By ending these COVID-19 emergency use authorization declarations, we’re reinforcing public confidence that emergency authorities are temporary and...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to...

The White House wants you to see exactly what government health care fraud looks like once it gets cashed out. It looks like an eight-bedroom mansion, game-worn Kobe Bryant sneakers, original Mickey Mantle Yankees cards, and a garage full of luxury cars. All of it, federal prosecutors say, traces back to false claims billed to Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid. On June 2, 2026, the official White House Rapid Response 47 account posted CBS News video of the seized items and tied the case directly to President Trump’s fraud crackdown. An 8 bedroom mansion, game-worn Kobe Bryant sneakers, original Mickey...

An alarming shift is emerging in US hospitals. A new study has revealed a disturbing rise in life-altering amputations nationwide, with one unexpected at-risk population seeing a particularly sharp increase in recent years. Even more concerning, those cases tended to be more severe, often involving loss of an arm or the upper leg above the knee. In the study, researchers from Mass General Brigham and University of California, San Francisco analyzed US hospitalizations between 2016 and 2022 to see how amputation rates have changed over time. Over the six-year period, amputations rose overall, by 35.3% (from 58.9 to 79.7 per...

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker had a "minor complication" from a recent procedure and was taken to a Springfield hospital earlier this week, a spokesperson for the governor confirmed to NBC Chicago Friday. The complication stemmed from an earlier urology procedure, with Pritzker going to a Springfield hospital overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning.

An unusual food delivery order from a cancer patient recently sparked a relay of caregiving in Guangdong, China. A young woman, named Xiao Li, is receiving treatment for a rare form of blood cancer, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on April 25. As her family is working to fund her treatment, the 24-year-old is often alone in hospital. While looking through a food delivery app on April 15, Xiao Li decided to place a special order — companionship. She wrote in her request: "Sit by my bedside and accompany me for two hours." Her order was accepted by a delivery...

One in three doctor’s offices uses an AI scribe that records your entire visit. Most patients don’t know. Here are the 4 questions to ask. ⚡ TL;DR • AI records your visit at roughly 1 in 3 physician practices. • AI’s notes go into your permanent medical record. • Federal law doesn’t require the doctor to tell you. State laws vary. • 4 questions to ask at your next appointment, below. 📖 Read time: 2 minutes

What do you get when you cross the Corleone crime family with the Sopranos pulling off a heist even bigger than the Lucchese crime family's multimillion-dollar Lufthansa caper in 1978? I dunno, but it's got nothin' on California. If you haven't already read Rick Moran's excellent "Gavin Newsom, 'The Celebrated Jumping Fraud King of Calaveras County'," open that in a new tab, take a gander, then come back here. Because when I first read Rick's piece, I thought, "That's some massive theft going on, but how big is it, really?"Longtime Sharp VodkaPundit Readers™ know I can't look at the big...

YouTuber and investigative journalist Nick Shirley’s quest to uncover fraud continues to yield results that — while alarming — are also admittedly hilarious in watching. After gaining national attention for his investigation of Minnesota’s Somali communities, Shirley has made his way to Los Angeles, California. In an update posted to social media platform X on Sunday, Shirley paid a “friendly” visit to a “hospice consulting” business, inquiring with employees as to how he could start one. They were, predictably, unwilling to oblige. “LA hospice fraudsters shut down their fraudulent business and flee the building. This ‘business’ was operating as a...