Medicaid rolls swell as 8 million New Yorkers get coverage at expected record- price of almost $35B

 It’s becoming Medicaid for the Many.

The number of New York state residents who get government-funded Medicaid health insurance is expected to soar to nearly 8 million this year, data released from Gov. Hochul’s $227 billion budget plan shows.

Another 3.7 million of New York’s 19 million residents qualify for Medicare, the government’s health insurance for the elderly. Some elderly residents also qualify for Medicaid, which covers long term care like nursing home costs.

Excluding those only on Medicare, the number of residents enrolled in New York’s public health insurance hits 9 million when factoring in other programs covering those who don’t qualify for Medicaid — including asylum seekers and other illegal migrants, and those whose incomes are slightly above the Medicaid threshold.

Medicaid rolls have skyrocketed over the past decade.

In New York, the Affordable Care Act — better known as ObamaCare — was used to move more people into the Medicaid program and reduce the number of uninsured residents. Enrollees in Medicaid jumped from 5.2 million in 2012 to more than 6 million by 2019.

And during the pandemic, job losses and unemployment triggered even higher Medicaid surges — to 6.8 million in 2020, 7.3 million in 2021 and nearly 7.8 million by December 2022.

The new changes will allow 8 million to receive government-funded Medicaid.

NY GOV

The pandemic’s impact and the state’s ever-growing aging population is putting an enormous fiscal strain on Medicaid programs, whose total costs have ballooned to $94.4 billion, Hochul’s budget plan says. 

The costs are split between the federal, state and local governments. The cost to New York will hit a record $34.7 billion — nearly double from a decade ago — in the fiscal year beginning in April.

The average yearly cost per member is $9,531 — more than $1,600 over what it was in 2017, state data reveal.

The pandemic caused a massive surge in Medicaid usage.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

“The budget reflects over $1.6 billion in new costs associated with Medicaid enrollment estimates above prior projections,” Hochul’s budget analysis said.

The federal government pumped billions into states to help cover the jobless who enrolled in Medicaid and other public health insurances — but some of that emergency assistance will dry up, Hochul’s budget briefing book notes.

“Due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, Medicaid enrollment is projected to peak at a historic high of nearly 7.9 million enrollees in June 2023, and then decline over the next 12 months as COVID enrollment unwinds,” Hochul’s budget plan said.

“Eligibility will need to be re-determined for over 9 million people on the State’s various public health insurance programs. The uncertainty around future Medicaid enrollment puts risk on Medicaid spending in future fiscal years.”

New York’s aging population is another challenge.

“The State’s population is aging and driving significant growth in the Medicaid program, as costs for those who need long term care are ten times that of a typical Medicaid enrollee,” Hochul’s spending plan said.

In addition, the influx of poor migrants or asylum seekers landing here “may drive further costs to the State,” the governor’s plan says. Her proposed budget offers to pay New York City one third of an estimated $1 billion tab to address the migrant crisis.

Her spending plan also Increases the Medicaid reimbursement rates by 5% for hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living providers. 

One health care expert said the Medicaid enrollment has become bloated because the federal government suspended its typical verification checks during the pandemic.

“There’s a certain amount of waste going on,” said Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy with the Empire Center for Public Policy.

Hammond said Hochul is “putting her foot on the gas” instead of trying to put a lid on Medicaid spending.

The average annual cost per Medicaid member is $9,531.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

“Medicaid is supposed to be a safety net program. It shouldn’t have this many people on it. We have too many people in the Medicaid system who should be in a commercial health plan [through their employer],” he said.

Hochul’s budget briefing admits the Medicaid program “continues to grow beyond indexed growth, further challenged by Medicaid enrollment that is no longer assumed to return to pre-pandemic levels.”

But she also defends spending on the program as providing “critical investments to address the needs of vulnerable New Yorkers, stabilize the health care delivery system and improve health outcomes.”

Hochul says the Medicaid program is fine for now, but warns “in the long term…. Medicaid spending will need to be further reformed to align with allowable growth, while still meeting the needs of vulnerable New Yorkers.”

https://nypost.com/2023/02/05/medicaid-rolls-swell-as-8-million-new-yorkers-get-coverage-at-expected-record-price-of-almost-35b/

Hochul sides with hospital lobby over insurers, labor in pay dispute

 Gov. Hochul is following the lead of predecessor Andrew Cuomo — siding with the powerful hospital lobby in a fight with health insurers and labor unions over medical billing payments.

Opponents — including United Federation of Teachers union president Mike Mulgrew — said the “pay and pursue” proposal backed by Hochul in her $227 billion spending plan would require health insurers to immediately pay hospital billing claims without reviewing whether the treatment was medically necessary.

The opponents argue the plan could hike costs and waste — and that it’s difficult to claw back a payout once the bills are paid if a procedure was considered unnecessary.

“What this proposal doesn’t take into account is the people who are paying the cost — and that’s us. That’s my members,” Mulgrew told The Post.

“The added costs are passed along to us. That is silly and that has got to stop.”

A group called the Protect Patient Coalition — which includes the health insurance industry and labor unions — is launching a TV ad attacking the plan and urging people to call Hochul’s office to stop it.

The six figure ad buy is largely bankrolled by the New York Public Health Plan Association and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

A group called the Protect Patient Coalition is launching a TV ad to fight the “pay and pursue” proposal.

AP/Andrew Kelly

But the coalition also includes other influential unions — including Local 32 BJ of the Services Employees International Union, the Teamsters , the New York State Business Council and National Federation of Independent Business.

“Hospital profits would increase — and so would the cost of your health care. Tell Gov. Hochul `pay and pursue’ is not for you,” declares the ad, which was obtained by The Post and includes the phone number for Hochul’s office.

The change in the billing law is included in Hochul’s spending plan; the final budget, to be negotiated with the legislature, is due April 1.

“The ‘Pay and Pursue’ proposal, which would require hospitals to be paid before submitting information to determine if the service is clinically appropriate and then force health plans to engage in a lengthy and cumbersome process to pursue refunds, will drive up costs for consumers, employers and taxpayers,” NY Health Plan Association president Eric Linzer said. 

“Further, the proposal will make it more difficult to ensure that care is safe and effective for patients, and do nothing more than provide a financial windfall for hospitals.”

The legislature rejected Cuomo’s pro-hospital payment plan when he first proposed it in 2021. Hochul has revived it.

“The `Pay and Resolve’ bill included in the FY 24 Executive Budget will vastly increase administrative efficiency without resulting in any meaningful difference regarding payment of claims,” said state Health Department spokesman Cort Ruddy.

He said the legislation will require insurance plans to pay claims to hospitals for emergency admissions within a reasonable period of time after services are given. Insurers then have the right to challenge claims paid to the hospital that they believe were inappropriate because they weren’t medically necessary.

“Hospital profits would increase — and so would the cost of your health care. Tell Gov. Hochul `pay and pursue’ is not for you,” states the ad.

Matthew McDermott

Ruddy said unions and self-insured plans are not included in the Pay and Resolve bill. Industry sources claimed union workers’ medical bills are covered.

The hospital industry applauded Hochul for taking its side and dismissed as overblown concerns raised by the insurers and unions.

“New York’s hospitals strongly support this commonsense provision and thank Governor Hochul for including it in her budget. There shouldn’t be anything controversial about paying hospitals on time for emergency services they’ve already provided, especially when these giant for-profit insurers are sitting on billions in profits,” said Brian Conway, spokesman for the Greater New York Hospital Association.

“And don’t be fooled by this misguided coalition’s ads. Health Insurers would still be able to challenge the medical necessity of any procedure and recoup costs if a challenge is found to have merit. This budget proposal does not change the outcome of good faith medical necessity disputes—it just ensures that hospitals are promptly paid for services already provided. Both the State Medicaid and Federal Medicare programs pay first and pursue medical necessity through audits after the fact—why not health insurance companies?”

https://nypost.com/2023/02/05/hochul-sides-with-hospital-lobby-over-insurers-labor-in-pay-dispute/

Polls Show Record Number Of Americans Worse Off Financially Since Biden Took Office

 The Biden White House has made it their top priority to present the US economy as a wellspring of jobs creation and recovery.  Biden relies primarily on jobs data as proof that his economy is the "best economy ever" and has consistently tried to take credit for falling unemployment data and "12 million jobs created since he took office."  This claim of course ignores the 25 million+ jobs lost during the covid lockdowns, which Biden avidly supported even after it became clear that covid was a non-threat to the vast majority of the population.  

In other words, Biden has been trying to take credit for the recovery of jobs he originally helped to destroy. Many Democrat run states are still lagging and a return to financial stability has been difficult.  Other concerns surround the manner in which labor data is being calculated.  Only last year the Philly Fed had to revise and refute White House labor gains and cut over 1 million jobs from their stats in the process.  That kind of discrepancy is not normal. 

In the meantime, inflation numbers have dropped slightly while interest rates rise, yet prices on most goods remain high.  Higher wages have not been able to catch up to far higher costs, and the stagflationary problem does not look like it will be going away anytime soon.  

With the ongoing price crisis as a backdrop, stagnant growth in half the states in the country, the apparent end to covid stimulus and credit costs rising, expectations of a recessionary crash are growing.  The White House says everything is fine, but what do the American people say?

According to a new ABC/Washington Post poll, 41% of the American public say they are now in worse shape financially since Joe Biden took office.  Only 16% of those polled said they were better off.  This is a record number of people in dire straights according to the data, which has been collected for 37 years.   Contrast this with the first two years of Donald Trump's administration, when only 13% of people said they were worse off.

The poll coincides with Biden's falling approval numbers - Just 37 percent approval for handling the economy, 38 percent on the war in Ukraine and 28 percent on the immigration situation at the Mexican border.  The public by a broad 62-36 percent would be disappointed or even angry if he were re-elected, rather than enthusiastic or satisfied.

This leads us to a not so surprising development among Democrats:  6 in 10 Democrats do not want to see Biden run for a second term.  The push for Biden to step down has been growing for the past year, with the aging candidate barely able to read a teleprompter and often seen as bumbling or incoherent.  The admissions by far-left outlets like the Washington Post of Biden's waning popularity and economic uncertainty may be part of a growing dissatisfaction among leftists with Biden and their intention of replacing him by 2024.   

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/polls-show-record-number-americans-worse-financially-biden-took-office

Killing of Tyre Nichols horrific continuation of American black-on-black crime

 Many commenters on the Left have situated the arrest of Tyre Nichols—the black man who was evidently beaten to death by five Memphis police officers, also black—as a racial issue. White supremacy, they say, does not require the presence of white people to effect its ugliness, because black people—especially those working in a structurally racist institution such as policing—internalize the racist attitudes of whites. There is, according to these pundits, a close parallel between the Nichols case and other abuse cases involving white cops and black victims, because many blacks absorb racist views about blacks and enact them against their own race as enforcers of white supremacy.

It makes more sense to interpret the beatings that resulted in this young man’s death as another case of black-on-black crime. Those five black police officers constituted a gang of thugs which unleashed its viciousness against an innocent victim. This is the trauma many blacks in inner cities suffer every day from the gang members who prey on their neighborhoods.

Blacks targeting other blacks for murder is the most systemic form of racial profiling that exists in the U.S. today. Black-on-black crime is a national security disaster and risk. It betrays a deep current of black self-hatred that expresses itself in homicidal rage turned largely against black people.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the offending rate for blacks (the number of blacks who commit homicide as a percentage of the population) was almost eight times higher than that for whites, and the victim rate six times higher. Most homicides were intraracial, with 84 percent of white victims killed by whites, and 93 percent of black victims killed by blacks.

Racial profiling of blacks by other blacks is systemic and pervasive in the black community. One hears it in the music where the black gang lifestyle, murders, sexploitation, explicit and graphic sexual depictions of blacks, drugs, and violence are routinely celebrated and consumed in the black community. There is, as far as I can tell, no other aesthetic analogue in any other culture—not where members of a race or ethnicity celebrate and encourage each other to murder their own kind, hyper-sexualize each other, and sell, steal, and consume drugs; not where a lifestyle predicated on the degradation of one’s in-group is a constitutive feature of the culture.

During an appearance on Meet the Press on Sunday, January 29, 2023, Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan lamented the beating death of Nichols at the hands of the five Memphis police officers. Speaking with host Chuck Todd, the Republican legislator stated, “I don’t know that there’s any law that can stop that evil that we saw,” before adding, “but no amount of training’s going to change what we saw in that video.”

Jordan has been criticized for being offensive and insensitive in saying that. But perhaps he has a point. Evil cannot be legislated away. It can be punished when it violates the rights of others, but the brokenness and the evil that those officers carry within themselves are rooted deeply. They maliciously executed a beating they knew could kill a slightly built man. No law, at least not in a free society, can uproot the aesthetic debauchery or the moral and spiritual bankruptcy of the black community in the United States.

It is not the case, of course, that black American culture has to be this way, nor that it always has been this way. This cultural indigence derives largely from the way that leftists have resolutely made excuses for the worst outcomes for African Americans, insisting that all of it was a result of and reaction to white racism. Everything good and wholesome about black life—the sense of mutual aid, bettering one’s station, and the importance of family and marriage—was denigrated as a kind of false consciousness. Brutish misery was promoted as black authenticity.

Perhaps Jim Jordan was speaking elliptically, for he knew that if he spoke openly he might be rebuked and censured. Yes, of course there are good black police officers who have emerged from a broken and bankrupt culture; one cannot steep oneself too deeply in stereotypes. But stereotypes hold some degree of truth to them. The gang that killed Tyre Nichols derives from a bereft culture, a culture where blacks seem to be represented everywhere, where white supremacy penetrates every sphere of public and private life. But laser focused attention needs to be aimed at a parallel society existing concurrently in the USA.

When we speak of black American culture today, we are talking about a culture that is broken, bereft of values, moral heft, and sustained leadership. It is self-destructing. It is a thug culture that contributes little of any intellectual, aesthetic, or moral value to the world at large. The gang of five police officers who killed Tyre Nichols are the most eloquent manifestation of its ethos.

When asked what comes to mind when we think of black culture in America today, many of us would rather not say, because the answers are stark, dark, and devoid of much we would care to pass on to future generations. So we should not be surprised that thugs dressed in uniforms are no different than the ones with their pants hanging low below their waists who roam the streets terrorizing innocent citizens.

Congressman Jordan is correct. There might not be any laws to eradicate the evil depicted in the video showcasing the killing of Tyre Nichols. There are, however, radical solutions that can be entertained; solutions our society may rather not be ready to consider and implement. They might ask us to ponder the question of who gets let into the future, and who remains outside the realm of admission into civilized society.

Jason D. Hill is professor of philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago specializing in ethics, social and political philosophy, American foreign policy and American politics. He is the author of several books, including What Do White Americans Owe Black People: Racial Justice in the Age of Post-Oppression. 

https://americanmind.org/salvo/blaming-white-racism/

Traders See AI Tech Shaping Their Future, JPMorgan Finds

 Traders are betting artificial intelligence and machine learning will have the biggest impact on financial markets in the coming years.

More than half of respondents to a JPMorgan Chase & Co. survey of 835 institutional and professional traders said those technologies would have the most influence on trading in the next three years. That’s up from a quarter in 2022.

“This trend toward automation is something we’re seeing across the market now, and is expanding into the credit and rates side as well as commodities,” said Scott Wacker, head of FICC e-commerce sales at JPMorgan.

Quantitative hedge funds are “bringing systematic models optimized with machine learning to over-the-counter markets,” he said. “We’re also seeing asset managers using data in a more dynamic way using AI-enhanced technologies to assess and improve how they’re executing trades.”

We Asked ChatGPT to Make a Market-Beating ETF. Here’s the Result

Many asset managers already try to integrate some form of AI into their systems and algos, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s 2022 US Institutional Equity Trading study. Still, the majority regarded AI as more of a “catchword emerging technology.”

Since then, the release of ChatGPT in November has turbocharged broader interest in AI technology and natural language processing. The tool has lit up the internet and sparked a fresh debate over the role of AI across workplaces.

“People are amazed at what AI technology can achieve,” said Wacker. “Natural language processing is moving along at pace, but it’s a little harder to configure right now. It’s at the beginning of a journey.”

AI Still Largely a Catchword for Traders

Elsewhere in JPMorgan’s survey, there were signs the past year’s turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry had curtailed enthusiasm toward the asset class. Some 72% of traders said they have no plans to trade crypto, up from around a quarter last year.

Separately, blockchain and distributed ledger technology was seen as having the third-largest impact on trading after AI and Application Programming Interface (API) integration, which allows apps to work with each other. JPMorgan is using blockchain in repurchase agreement markets.

The $7 Trillion Global FX Market Is a Target for DeFi Proponents

“Blockchain in terms of settling and managing trades is going to be very interesting,” said Wacker. “It’s a little further down the line. But in the same way that AI and machine learning weren’t quite there a couple years ago, blockchain technology is poised to move up the ladder.”

Traders predicted that ‘recession risk’ will have the biggest impact on markets in 2023, closely followed by ‘inflation’. And in a change to the survey response for the last six years, ‘Liquidity Availability’ was no longer the leading daily trading challenge. Instead, 46% of traders predict ‘Volatile Markets’ will be their greatest daily trading challenge in 2023.

That is “testament to how well the market has functioned over the past 12 months that liquidity concerns have reduced so drastically,” Wacker said. “In spite of the elevated volatility and activity, the markets have proven robust and reliable.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/traders-see-ai-technology-shaping-000101773.html

Colombian military spots balloon-like object in its airspace

 A day before a U.S. military jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon, Colombia's military confirmed a sighting over its territory of an airborne object similar to a balloon.

Colombia's air force said in a brief statement on Saturday that a possible balloon had been detected in its air defense system on Friday morning.

U.S. military officials on Friday said a Chinese balloon was spotted somewhere over Latin America but did not specify its location.

The Colombian statement did not mention China or any other country as the balloon's origin.

According to the Colombian statement, an "object" was detected over its territory at an altitude of 55,000 feet that had entered the South American country's airspace to the north moving at an average speed of 25 knots, or roughly 29 miles per hour.

The statement added that the object exhibited "characteristics similar to those of a balloon," and that the air force monitored it until it left Colombian airspace.

"It was determined that it did not represent a threat to national security," the statement added.

No other official confirmation of unidentified balloons flying over other Latin American countries has been issued as of Sunday.

In recent days, however, balloon sightings have been made in Venezuela and Costa Rica by multiple social media users.

Costa Rican officials received reports of a balloon on Thursday and planes were notified, according to the head of the civil aviation agency.

"It was the same thing everyone else saw, a white ball," said Fernando Naranjo, Costa Rica's civil aviation director, adding that no further action was taken.

The saga of the Chinese balloon, downed off of the U.S. Atlantic coast on Saturday, captivated public attention for days, and was widely seen as worsening U.S.-China relations.

Chinese ally Venezuela in a statement on Sunday condemned the U.S. decision to shoot down the balloon

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/index/NASDAQ-COLOMBIA-13492976/news/Colombian-military-spots-balloon-like-object-in-its-airspace-42905284/