Tag: health care

Report: Health Insurance Fraud Pervasive Among Trans Medical Industry

Trans activists have drilled vulnerable children and their parents into believing there’s nothing wrong with being trans.

Children, they claim, were incorrectly “assigned” a sex at birth, or were simply born with the “wrong body” or go through the “wrong puberty.”

And any distress over birth sex experienced by young people, they assert, is due to the lack of “affirmation” of their true gender identity by their families.

The problem with that approach, the trans medical industry found, is that families can’t afford the costly drugs and surgeries required to have their children live out their delusion as the opposite sex.

An easy fix would be to have trans drugs and surgeries for minors covered by health insurance. But, how to get health insurance to pay for these expenses when a “diagnostic code” is required – all the while gender ideologues claim there is nothing at all to diagnose?

According to Leor Sapir, prominent expert in the field of pediatric gender medicine, the answer to gender medicine’s puzzle was health insurance fraud – a “widespread” practice, he says, and now one the Trump administration is addressing.

“A common form of potential billing fraud involves use of the diagnosis ‘Endocrine Disorder Not Otherwise Specified’ (E34.9 in the International Classification of Diseases handbook), instead of ‘Gender Identity Disorders’ (F64), for patients who do not have or are not being treated for endocrine disorders,” Sapir wrote Thursday in a column at City Journal.

The Trump administration launched its attack on so-called “gender-affirming care” for children and teens on January 28 with the executive order “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”

The order directed the U.S. Department of Justice to “prioritize investigations and take appropriate action to end deception of consumers, fraud, and violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by any entity that may be misleading the public about long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilation.”

The U.S. Department of Justice announced in July it had sent more than 20 subpoenas to gender medicine doctors and clinics that perform so-called “gender-affirming care” procedures on children. The investigations include issues of “healthcare fraud, false statements, and more,” the announcement said.

“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.

Keep reading

White House to Launch Website Exposing Criminal Illegal Aliens Who Have Received Medicaid

The White House will launch a website on Monday night exposing criminal illegal aliens, including murderers, rapists, and burglars, who have received taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits, Breitbart News has learned.

The website features mugshots and photos of dozens of illegal aliens convicted of brutal crimes, undercutting Democrat claims that illegal aliens have not received healthcare benefits.

The top of the page chronicles the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal aliens convicted of crimes who have received Medicaid benefits, as well as Democrats’ efforts to restore Medicaid benefits to illegal aliens and noncitizens:

The Trump administration has intensified enforcement against criminal illegal aliens receiving taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits, arresting hundreds of unauthorized individuals since taking office, including those with serious criminal records who exploited taxpayer-funded Medicaid illegally or through loopholes. This crackdown, driven by executive orders prioritizing public safety and fiscal responsibility, has led to the swift deportation of many individuals convicted of heinous acts, ensuring that previous resources meant for American citizens are no longer diverted to subsidize violent criminals.

Compounding the crisis, Democrats have refused to pass a clean budget bill to end the shutdown unless Republicans concede to their demands for $1.5 trillion in new spending, including restorations to Medicaid expansions that would effectively extend coverage to over 1 million illegal aliens, funneling an additional $200 billion to such programs over the next decade at the expense of U.S. families.

At least five of the two dozen individuals listed on a glimpse of the page reviewed by Breitbart News were arrested for either murder or manslaughter.

Keep reading

‘Horror story’: RFK Jr. reveals chilling organ harvesting scandal

Ashocking revelation from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has exposed what he calls a “horror story” inside America’s organ donation system.

On a recent segment of Newsmax, RFK Jr. detailed a case in which a woman allegedly awoke while her organs were being harvested and did not live to tell the tale.

“It’s a horror story, and part of it is because of the capture of the agency that was regulating ORR, had a — the board that was actually regulating organ harvesting was overlapping with the contractor that was actually harvesting the organs,” he began.

“I had one instance where a family was waiting at the hospital for the body of their deceased relative. The relative was brought to one of these private organ harvesting centers, awoke while they were harvesting her organs, and then was brought back to the hospital … where she died eventually,” he continued.

Keep reading

Trump admin. probe finds Democrat states spent over $1B in Medicaid funds on illegal aliens: ‘My team is getting it back’

The Trump administration announced that it is launching probes into Medicaid spending on illegal aliens in at least six Democrat run states in an attempt to expel waste, fraud, and abuse in the public healthcare system.

According to a preliminary audit conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), California, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon spent a total of $1,351,204,127 on healthcare for illegal aliens utilizing Medicaid funds, mostly during 2024 and 2025.

Utilizing federal Medicaid funds to provide healthcare coverage to illegal aliens is illegal under federal law; however, Medicaid funds can be used to cover emergency medical services for anyone, regardless of their immigration status.

The Trump administration is arguing that the Democrat states in question are providing comprehensive healthcare to illegal immigrants utilizing federal Medicaid funds, prompting the probe.

“Medicaid is by far the largest source of federal funding for states. It was originally intended to only provide aid for eligible beneficiaries, but, over time, states have figured out how to game the system, padding permitted expenses and diverting the profits to fund activities that are supposedly prohibited,” stated Manhattan Institute public health policy expert Chris Pope.

“Any claim that state healthcare expenditures don’t ultimately involve some form of federal funds should be regarded with suspicion,” he added.

Meanwhile, Democrat leaders from the list of states suspected of breaking federal law have argued that the probe is “based on an incorrect preliminary finding,” while arguing that their policies are in accordance with federal law.

“Our payments for coverage of undocumented individuals are in accordance with state and federal laws,” stated Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing spokesman Marc Williams. “The $1.5 million number referenced by federal leaders today is based on an incorrect preliminary finding, and has been refuted with supporting data by our Department experts.”

“It is disappointing that the administration is announcing this number as final when it is clearly overstated and the conversations are very much in the education and discussion phase,” he added.

According to the preliminary audit conducted by CMS, California spent over $1 billion in federal Medicaid funds on illegal immigrants, followed by Illinois, which reportedly spent nearly $30 million. Oregon spent the third most, according to the audit, totaling over $5 million.

Keep reading

5 States Handed Out $1.4B In Federal Medicaid Funding To Illegals

Five states and Washington, D.C., funneled more than $1.35 billion in federal taxpayer Medicaid funding to illegals, according to a preliminary audit of the program completed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehemet Oz posted the results of the preliminary audit on social media showing California, D.C., Illinois, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon spent millions each on illegals, with California spending the bulk, topping over $1.3 billion alone.

That money, according to Oz, was spent “just in the last few months.”

The left constantly claims this does not, or even cannot, happen because it is against federal law to use programs like Medicaid — something meant for Americans — for illegals, but that small sample of states shows that states are defrauding the American people out of their own programs to the tune of billions of dollars.

That claim is even more spurious considering the Democrats are only days away from breaking the all-time longest government shutdown record because they care more about funding health care for illegals than citizens of their own country.

“Some want to deny that illegal immigrants are receiving Medicaid. Others insist it’s illegal for Medicaid to cover illegal immigrants. And others accurately point out that hospitals can provide emergency services to illegal immigrants under the program,” Oz said, noting CMS is intending to have the money returned to them.

States share Medicaid funding responsibilities with the federal government, and they administer the program independently. The law does not prohibit the states from using their own money to pay for illegals, just federal funding. (This exception provides a back door for federal tax dollars to de facto fund illegals, as money is fungible.)

According to Oz, Democrats are so zealous about giving American money to illegals that even that massive loophole was not enough, stating, “that didn’t stop Democrats from going even further by breaking federal law to give illegal immigrants federal Medicaid dollars meant for American citizens.”

“Whether willful or not, the states’ conduct highlights a terrifying reality: American taxpayers have been footing the bill for illegal immigrants’ Medicaid coverage, despite many Democrats and the media insisting otherwise,” he added.

Keep reading

Why cancer is hitting the Midwest harder than anywhere else in America

While the rest of the country’s cancer rates are falling, those in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana and Kansas — known as the Corn Belt — are rising at an alarming rate, data shows.

The spike in America’s corn-producing states caught the attention of the University of Iowa’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, which gathered a panel to investigate the trend. 

One of the experts, Dr. Marian Neuhouser, a professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, served on the panel as an expert in nutrition and obesity.

“The panel came about after they noticed that the trends for cancer incidence were increasing at a faster rate in Iowa than in other states,” Neuhouser told Fox News Digital.

A data analysis by The Washington Post based on federal health datasets found that the number of people diagnosed with cancer in the six Corn Belt states has outpaced the national average since the mid-2010s. 

Keep reading

Patients go without needed treatment after the government shutdown disrupts a telehealth program

Bill Swick has a rare degenerative brain disease that inhibits his mobility and speech. Instead of the hassle of traveling an hour to a clinic in downtown Chicago to visit a speech therapist, he has benefited from virtual appointments from the comfort of his home.

But Swick, 53, hasn’t had access to those appointments for the last month.

The federal government shutdown, now in its fifth week, halted funding for the Medicare telehealth program that pays his provider for her services. So, Swick and his wife are practicing old strategies rather than learning new skills to manage his growing difficulties with processing language, connecting words and pacing himself while speaking.

“It’s frustrating because we want to continue with his journey, with his progress,” 45-year-old Martha Swick, a caregiver for her husband since his diagnosis three years ago, said during an interview at their home in Minooka, Illinois. “I try to have all his therapy and everything organized for him, to make his day easier and smoother, and then everything has a hitch, and we have to stop and wait.”

Their experience has become common in recent weeks among the millions of patients with Medicare fee-for-service plans who count on pandemic-era telehealth waivers to attend medical appointments from home.

Keep reading

6 Reasons Congress Should Let The Enhanced Obamacare Subsidies Expire

After a series of scary headlines, prompted in no small part by fearmongering on the left, Obamacare’s open enrollment period is finally upon us. For those individuals about to explore their options on the Exchange, or those who just want to learn more about the issues behind the government shutdown, here are some fast facts about open enrollment and the enhanced Exchange subsidies currently scheduled to expire on Dec. 31.

1. Nearly half of all Exchange enrollees currently qualify for “free” premiums.

Under the original, circa 2010 version of Obamacare, all households had to pay at least 2 percent of their income toward a “benchmark” silver-level insurance plan. In theory, some households could qualify for a “skinnier” bronze-level insurance plan with no out-of-pocket premium (and a higher deductible as a result), but most households paid something for their coverage.

However, the Covid-era enhanced subsidies passed by the Biden administration allowed households with incomes below 150 percent of poverty to qualify for zero-dollar (i.e., “free”) premiums. Perhaps unsurprisingly, households reporting income below this threshold have risen to nearly half (45 percent) of all Exchange enrollees. While the left views this policy outcome as a feature, most taxpayers would likely consider it a bug, for the obvious reason below.

2. CBO and others have found millions of fraudulent enrollees, costing tens of billions of dollars annually.

The Congressional Budget Office found 2.3 million enrollees “improperly claimed [subsidies] via intentional overstatement of income” in 2025, falsely claiming income just above the poverty level to qualify for subsidies. Applying the average Exchange subsidy to this population results in estimated fraudulent spending of $13.9 billion per year.

A separate study from the Paragon Health Institute took a broader look at fraud, examining areas where enrollees have incentives to understate and overstate their income to qualify for the richest subsidies. (Disclosure: While I have done work for Paragon, I had no involvement with this particular report and am writing this article on my own behalf.) This broader examination of Exchange program integrity found 6.4 million potentially fraudulent enrollees in 2025, for which the federal government is paying $27.1 billion this year alone.

3. If the enhanced subsidies expire, the federal government will still pay 75-80 percent of enrollees’ premiums on average. 

No, that’s not a typo. A graphic from the leftist think tank KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) admits as much. 

Keep reading

RFK Jr. Says Officials Exploring Feasibility of Breaking Up MMR Vaccine

Federal officials are looking at separating vaccines for the measles and several other diseases into individual shots, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Oct. 29.

“We’re looking at the feasibility of that now,” Kennedy told reporters in Washington after being asked about breaking up the combination measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Kennedy did not offer more details.

“Immunizations for measles, mumps, and rubella would be best administered as three separate vaccines,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told The Epoch Times in an email. “Standalone vaccinations can potentially reduce the risk of side effects and can maximize parental choice in childhood immunizations.”

President Donald Trump, in September, called for people to take separate shots against measles, mumps, and rubella. No individual shots against those diseases are currently available in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is part of HHS.

After Trump, on Oct. 6, again said on social media that the MMR vaccine should be given in separate shots, acting CDC Director and Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill boosted the post and urged vaccine manufacturers to act.

Keep reading

Dallas Doctor Surrenders License After Texas AG Sues For Prescribing Gender Transition Drugs To Minors

A Dallas-based doctor has surrendered her medical license following a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2024, accusing her of illegally prescribing gender transition drugs to minors.

Paxton announced on Oct. 24 that Dr. May C. Lau has given up her state medical license but that the legal case over her alleged violation of Texas’s ban on gender transition treatment for minors is still ongoing.

“May Lau has done untold damage to children, both physically and psychologically, and the surrendering of her Texas medical license is a major victory for our state,” Paxton said in a statement.

“My case against her for breaking the law will continue, and we will not relent in holding anyone who tries to ‘transition’ kids accountable.”

Records from the Texas Medical Board indicate that Lau’s medical license was “canceled by request” earlier this month.

Her attorney did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.

The lawsuit, filed by the state of Texas in October 2024, alleged that Lau prescribed high-dose cross-sex hormones to 21 minors for the purpose of gender transitioning.

The case falls under Senate Bill 14, a law that took effect in September 2023 and was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court in June 2024. The legislation prohibits gender transition medical procedures for minors, including surgeries, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones.

The law also mandates that the Texas Medical Board shall revoke the medical license or other authorization to practice medicine of a physician who violates its provisions.

According to the lawsuit, Lau allegedly prescribed testosterone, which is a controlled substance, to female minors as part of treatments intended to alter their gender or affirm a gender identity different from their biological sex.

The lawsuit further alleged that Lau falsified medical and billing records “to mislead pharmacies, insurance providers, and/or patients” into believing the testosterone prescriptions were for other medical reasons.

Lau entered into a Rule 11 agreement with the state of Texas earlier this year, which prohibits her from practicing medicine on patients entirely while the case is still ongoing.

Keep reading