A mid-air engine fire, a tire separating from the landing gear, several emergency landings—what the hell is happening in the aviation industry this week?
Here are the latest headlines:
ZeroHedge (Tuesday): "Plane Was Nosediving": United Airlines Boeing 737 Engine Erupts In Flames Over Texas
CBS News (Thursday): American Air jet clipped Frontier Jet on Miami International Airport tarmac
ZeroHedge (Friday): United's Boeing 737 Max Jet Veers Off Runway In Houston, Marking Third Incident In Week
ZeroHedge (Friday): Tire Separates From Boeing 777, Crushes Cars In San Francisco Parking
ABC7 News (Friday): SFO-MEX United flight makes emergency landing at LAX due to hydraulic failure: officials
US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is silent on this week's incidents.
Some X users blame the series of aviation failures on the possibility of airline companies focusing on disastrous DEI policies.
Others ask the question: "Sabotage, shoddy maintenance, or other?"
What still haunts frequent flyers is the early January incident when a door plug ripped off the fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max.
Meanwhile, on Saturday morning, NBC News quickly pushed out an article titled "Aviation incidents seem to be proliferating, but experts say there's no reason for alarm," which read like a damage control piece by the aviation industry to calm fears.
"This is not a safety trend," said John Cox, a pilot and the president and CEO of Safety Operating Systems LLC, of the recent spate of aviation incidents.
Let's not forget the twin Boeing 737 disaster that killed 346 people five years ago.
My 83-year-old mother-in-law has dementia and is moving into assisted living next week. My father-in-law is 89. They have $25,000 in savings, $20,000 in an annuity and a long-term policy that pays just $100 a day. The cost of the home with skilled nursing is $315 a day.
Their home has a value of $170,000 and they have a reverse mortgage in both names for $74,000. The principal was $40,000 so they have $34,000 of accrued interest and it's growing by more than $500 a month.
What should I do? Should I pay off the reverse mortgage and risk losing the money if she ends up spending years in a home? They only have enough money to pay seven months because her insurance provider does not start paying until she's in the home for 90 days.
We have consulted an eldercare lawyer and he wants $7,000 to get her qualified for Medicaid. We have no idea what to do.
Dear reader,
Not only is navigating eldercare and the finances around it complicated, but it can be emotional for you and your whole family.
First, examine the stipulations around the reverse mortgage, given that it has already started. Some older folks utilize reverse mortgages for long-term care, and it could be what helps pay the gap until their insurance kicks in.
You don't necessarily have to repay the reverse mortgage right now, nor does your father-in-law. Reverse mortgages must not be repaid until the homeowners move out of the house, or when the last borrower dies, so if your father-in-law intends to live there the rest of his life, using the reverse mortgage could work for him (provided he's not set on leaving the house and all of its value to anyone for an inheritance, as this would squash that goal).
Using home equity can be advantageous for older individuals in a few ways. The first: The income is tax-free. The second: The value of the home is likely to rise over time, as opposed to pulling money out of an investment account, which would dwindle the balance and any potential return opportunities.
Your father-in-law needs to be diligent with his money management as there are, of course, pitfalls. Borrowers who run out of home equity can still live in their homes, but they're responsible for taxes and insurance, according to American Advisors Group, a reverse-mortgage lender. If he is planning to use any home equity to pay his everyday expenses and runs out of money, that would be a problem and could result in the loan going into default.
Rules of a reverse mortgage
With a reverse mortgage, the loan need not be paid off until the house is sold. If the house is sold for more than the loan balance, the proceeds would pay off the debt and then the seller could keep the difference, according to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. If the loan is more than the sale price of the house, and it was sold at its appraised value, the proceeds would be used to pay off the loan, and the mortgage insurance company would pay the rest.
Elder care attorneys can help with the ins and outs of Medicaid coverage, as well as assist in estate-planning needs, which your father-in-law, as well as everyone else in the family, should discuss. Find a professional that is qualified, legitimate and who you can trust. But their services can get expensive. The average hourly rate for eldercare law is $440, according to legal software company Clio. But you don't have to stick with the first person you meet.
In a situation like this, even if it feels time sensitive, shop around and interview potential candidates. That will give you a good idea about the fair market rate, as well as what other potential avenues your father-in-law and family have available.
10 states did not fall for the Medicaid expansion trap under Obamacare. The rest are suffering. Private payers (you, one way or another) make up the loss.
Medicaid expansion ushered in through ObamaCare has led to program enrollment growth well beyond what was promised or projected. While proponents argue that expansion is a silver bullet to keep hospitals financially secure, this is simply not true.
Because Medicaid does not pay enough to cover the costs to hospitals to provide patient care, hospitals rely on private payers to make up for these losses.
The lower payment rate and more Medicaid enrollees—especially those forced out of private coverage—mean increased Medicaid shortfalls, contributing to lower profit margins. This increases pressure on hospitals’ bottom lines, especially for rural hospitals where fewer patients make it more difficult to make up the shortfalls. The result is hospital closures in expansion states across the country. New data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows just how dire the situation is for hospitals in expansion states.
Not every state chose to expand Medicaid when given the chance beginning in 2014. This provides a real-life demonstration with nearly a decade of data, showing how covering so many able-bodied adults is affecting hospitals. This data can be invaluable for non-expansion states, as well as states that have expanded.
Hospitals in expansion states were in better financial shape before they expanded—but this has since flipped.
The reason for this flip in financial stability in expansion states is that hospitals count on private payers to make up for the reduced payments provided by Medicaid. In non-expansion states, private payers averaged payments of 128 percent of hospital costs, whereas Medicaid averaged only 76 percent of costs.
As a higher proportion of hospital services are billed to Medicaid because of expansion, there are not enough private payments to boost back profits. This is especially true in rural areas without a large patient base to draw from. Thankfully, as non-expansion states have resisted calls to expand, they have not suffered from this shift in payers from private insurance to Medicaid as expansion states have.
Because Medicaid does not pay enough to cover hospital costs, hospitals in most states have Medicaid shortfalls. That is, the difference between hospital payments from Medicaid and the cost of providing services to patients enrolled in Medicaid.
Key Findings
Medicaid does not pay enough to cover hospitals’ costs, meaning hospitals need to make up for the shortfall by charging private payers more.
In expansion states, hospitals’ Medicaid shortfalls have reached $22.3 billion, increasing by 117 percent since 2013.
If non-expansion states were to expand, their hospitals’ Medicaid shortfalls would more than double, from $6.3 billion to $13.2 billion.
Non-expansion states should continue to say no to Medicaid expansion, and expansion states should work to roll it back.
Financial Struggles
Several hospitals, especially in rural areas, have recently closed and more are at risk of closing. Another argument made for Medicaid expansion is that it financially helps hospitals, especially rural hospitals. But the data from expansion and non-expansion states does not bear this out.
The more people that are shifted from private insurance to Medicaid, the higher the Medicaid shortfalls, and the lower hospital profits. Hospitals are learning that you cannot become solvent by providing more and more services below cost. This is a surefire way to bankruptcy, not solvency. Nobody would call offering goods or services below cost a successful long-term business plan.
Reality has born this out, with a broad range of hospitals in expansion states closing across the country. In the South, Arkansas’s Crittenden Regional Health had a nearly $7 million surplus before expansion but soon closed after profits turned to losses. In the West, California’s Colusa Regional Medical Center also saw its profits turn to losses soon after expansion and was forced to close. In the Midwest, Illinois’s Westlake Hospital managed a surplus before expansion but by 2019 was operating at a nearly $7 million loss and was forced to close its doors.
Expansion Would Double Shortfalls
Expansion would more than double the Medicaid shortfalls for hospitals in those states, the equivalent of losing nearly 100,000 hospital jobs
Bottom Line
This evidence is clear that any further expansion would only harm the bottom lines of more hospitals by doubling the Medicaid shortfall in any state that chooses to expand. States that have not expanded should continue to avoid the Medicaid trap and those that have expanded should roll it back.
This was one of the easiest “I Told You So” advance predictions in history.
Best of all, we have a decade of data to prove it thanks to ten states that resisted the trap.
About to Get Much Worse
Thanks to mass immigration, rather the failure to stop it, things are about to get much worse. Denver provides the perfect example.
The Denver hospital system is turning away local residents because it is flooded with migrant visits.
Denver Health has treated more than 8,000 migrants who lack legal documentation in the past year, totaling about 20,000 visits, according to Steven Federico, MD, a pediatrician at the health system.
The majority of these patients are coming from Venezuela and arrive needing treatment for chronic and communicable diseases after making the difficult journey.
In 2020, the health system had about $60 million in uncompensated care costs. Last year, costs sprung to $136 million, a quarter of which came from caring for non-Denver residents.
Obama claimed Medicaid expansion would pay for itself.
Whenever you hear that claim please run. Free government handouts are never free and most often backfire completely.
Congratulations to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming for avoiding the Obamacare expansion trap.
The rest of the states need to reconsider the Faustian bargain they entered.
House Republicans are probing whether the Department of Justice retaliated against one of their impeachment witnesses — a former business associate of Hunter Biden whorevealed a 2014 conversationthen-Vice President Biden had with his son and the former mayor of Moscow.
Jason Galanis, who is currently serving a 14-year federal prison sentence for defrauding an American Indian tribe, disclosed a May 4, 2014, speaker phone conversation between Hunter and Joe Biden and Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and her husband, the ex-Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
Galaniswas interviewed last month from his prison cell in Montgomery, Ala., and during his stay, he alleged he had been a “victim of a pattern of retribution by the Department of Justice” to hinder congressional investigators.
House Republicans are probing whether the DOJ retaliated against impeachment inquiry witness James Galanis.Jason W Galantis/Facebook
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Andy Biggs on Tuesday sent letters on Tuesday to Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters and Manhattan Assistant US Attorney Negar Tekeei about the allegations.
“Mr. Galanis specifically alleged in his transcribed interview that he has been singled out for unequal treatment while in BOP custody after he asserted in a petition for commutation of his sentence that Hunter Biden and another business associate, Devon Archer, were complicit in the same illegal acts that landed Mr. Galanis in jail,” the lawmakers wrote in the missives, copiesof which were obtained exclusively by The Post.
Galanis, 53, was sentenced in 2020 but applied under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for home confinement three years later.
While receiving initial approval in California and Florida, Galanis’ appeal “was reversed” the day after the Oversight Committee subpoenaed Archer, Hunter’s former business partner.
“I understand from a former high-ranking Bureau of Prisons [BOP] official that the SDNY prosecutors aggressively weighed in with the Bureau of Prisons staff to oppose my release,” Galanis told House lawmakers during his interview.
Galanis claimed that Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Biden had a speakerphone conversation in 2014 with Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and her husband, the ex-Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.Kris Connor/WireImage
“I formally appealed the reversal. With each appeal stage, the BOP reason for my denial changed. For example, first, it was that there was too much time left on my sentence. This is not a valid reason for the denial,” he added.
“Next, it was that the CARES Act expired on May 10, 2023. This rationale is contrived and is contradicted by the approval on June 9th, a date after the purported May 10th expiration,” Galanis also said.
“Moreover, the BOP policy is that all CARES Act applications submitted before May 10th were to be processed, which I witnessed firsthand with fellow inmates being released well into late summer. I was being treated differently.”
Galanis said after the interview he was a “victim of a pattern of retribution by the Department of Justice.”
The House lawmakers asked for records related to Galanis’ home confinement appeals to be handed over by March 19, including all communications between the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Bureau of Prisons and the Justice Department.
Archer, who was also convicted in the tribal bond scheme and testified before the Oversight Committee last July, was present for the call at a party in Brooklyn but did not mention it during his transcribed interview.
Both were indicted in 2016 for selling $60 million in a bond sale ripoff to a South Dakota tribe, with Archer receiving a conviction two years later and a one-year prison sentence.
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Rep. Andy Biggs sent a letters to Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters and Manhattan Assistant US Attorney Negar Tekeei about the allegations.CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Galanis told House lawmakers that Baturina — who transferred $3.5 million in February 2014 to a firm controlled by Archer and Hunter Biden — and Luzhkov were referred to as “our friends” while the second son spoke with his father.
“During the May 4th party, we were told to go to an area of the restaurant to gather because Hunter was going to call his father,” Galanis said. “Hunter called his father, said hello and ‘hold on, Pops,’ then put the call on speakerphone and said, ‘I am here with our friends I told you were coming to town, and we wanted to say hello.’”
“The vice president said ‘hello’ and some pleasantries of ‘Hope you had safe travels,’ and then seemed like he wanted to bring the call to an end by saying, ‘OK then,you be good to my boy,’” he added.
“Hunter responded by saying, ‘Everything is good, and we are moving ahead.’ The vice president said something about ‘being helpful,’ and Hunter ended the call by saying that he was going to call his father later.”
Galanis said in his interview that Baturina and Luzhkov were called “our friends” by Hunter Biden during the conversation that included Joe Biden.Getty Images
Baturina had also attended a Feb. 4, 2014, dinner with Hunter Biden, but the 54-year-old first son told House lawmakers during his Feb. 28 deposition that she was not introduced to his dad at that event.
“I never received a dime from Ms. Baturina,” Hunter also said.
Galanis said the phone call “stunned” him at the time, adding that it “was clear to me this was a pre-arranged call with his father meant to impress the Russian investors that Hunter had access to his father and all the power and prestige of his position.”
A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.
“We are aware of the letter from Congress and are reviewing it,” a spokesman from the Bureau of Prisons told The Post, adding that the agency communicates with members of Congress and their staff and does not share that “correspondence with the media.”
The nation’s sheriffs on Friday expressed anger thatPresident Joe Bidendid not recognize law enforcement in hisState of the Union address,blasting the White House for turning a calm border into a calamity.
While he gave his speech just two weeks after visiting the Texas border, where he met with agents, Biden failed to acknowledge their efforts to keep the nation safe despite broadening violence.
The National Sheriffs’ Association, expressing frustration both at being ignored by Biden and by Biden’s dismantling of the Trump-era border protections officers played a critical part in enforcing, called on the president to take action today to stop the flow of illegal immigrants flooding in.
In a statement to Secrets, NSA President Greg Champagne, the sheriff of St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, said, “Last night President Biden failed to recognize the men and women in law enforcement who protect our communities and their need for more resources to fight crime. We need more deputies, not fewer. We need a greater commitment to the rule of law.”
About the border, he blasted Biden’s executive orders canceling former President Donald Trump’s successful actions.
“These actions, in addition to other failures to act, have turned a secured border into a disaster in just over three years making all Americans less safe and allowing the Mexican cartels free rein,” Champagne said.
The sheriff cited efforts by past presidents to take action on their own and urged Biden to stop saying he has done all he can and take executive actions, as Trump and former Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan did, to secure the border.
What’s more, he dismissed the legislation Biden has been pushing that would make few major changes to immigration law. “The president repeated the recent refrain that he cannot do anything to secure the border until Congress acts on the current proposed legislation. However, this legislation would only enshrine into law that we could continue to admit 5,000 migrants per day, and an unlimited number of minors,” Champagne said in the statement.
“The National Sheriffs’ Association urges President Biden to stop playing election year politics with our safety and restrict immigration under the authority that he already has been granted by Congress years ago,” he added.
Citing high costs and low medication adherence, self-insured employers nationwide are making moves to end or limit coverage for employees prescribed weight loss medications, including major health systems.
Six health systems that have recently ended or limited coverage for weight loss drugs:
RWJBarnabas Health ended coverage for GLP-1s when prescribed for weight loss. The policy was effective Feb. 1 and does not affect employees prescribed GLP-1s for diabetes management. The West Orange, N.J.-based system cited a lack of sustained adherence to the medications.
Fairview Health Services limited coverage of Wegovy and Saxenda to employees with a body mass index of 40 or higher, beginning in 2024. The Minneapolis-based system said it anticipated $10 million in annual cost for the two drugs without the new policy.
HealthPartners told Becker's the Bloomington, Minn.-based organization will limit employee coverage for weight loss medications such as Wegovy but did not elaborate on what the restrictions will entail.
Mayo Clinic limited coverage for weight loss drugs through its employee health plan by imposing a lifetime limit of $20,000 for weight loss medication coverage. The Rochester, Minn-based system said the coverage limit does not apply to GLP-1s prescribed to employees for diabetes.
Ascension dropped coverage for weight loss drugs for its 139,000 employees in July. The St. Louis-based system said the move came after a review of the "safety, long-term outcomes, national coverage benchmarks, and cost-effectiveness" of weight-loss and anti-obesity prescription drugs.
Hennepin Healthcare ended coverage for Wegovy and other injectable weight loss drugs. The Minneapolis-based system cited high costs and questions around employee adherence to the medications.
California is one of just two states with a rising unemployment rate — and the situation is expected to get worse in the coming months,Newsweekreported March 7.
According to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 47,360 Californians filed for jobless benefits last week. That's a 6,150-person increase from the week prior and brings the state's unemployment rate to 5.1% (second only to Nevada, which sits at 5.3%).
The problem is fueled by a surge of layoffs in the state. Warn Tracker, which monitors WARN notices, reported that California has already seen 22,280 layoff notifications this year. Many are set to take effect between March and May as large tech, retail and healthcare companies cut jobs en masse.
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, gave Newsweek various reasons for the uptick, ranging from "a dip in economic activity to strategic shifts within companies adapting to a new economic landscape marked by technological advancements and altered consumer behavior."
Mr. Shepherdson does not believe the layoffs spell "recession," but said they represent a "downshift in job growth."
Nearly a quarter of the health systems that have reported job cuts since January are located in California, according to Becker's most recent coverage. Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Foundation Hospitals was the latest to announce layoffs, eliminating more than 70 employees, primarily in IT roles.
Kaiser told the San Francisco Chronicle that the cuts were "difficult but necessary."
Read the latest on layoffs in the healthcare industry here.
