Steve Martin

The state of Nebraska told the father of a son with intellectual disabilities that his public records request for documents related to a state Medicaid program would cost $1 million and be available by the year 2076.

A couple quick observations here, which should be obvious. 1) insurance “risk pools” work by requiring younger/healthier people who make few or no claims to sign up and pay premiums alongside older/less healthy people who do, essentially covering their costs.

Republicans, in their infinite wisdom, left a big gambling loophole in the Medicaid work requirements. I'm no fan of the gambling industry, but if you are on Medicaid and struggling to deal with the work requirements, taking a $580 bet on both sides of an outcome is one way of getting around them.

Federal law changes could end Medicaid for some NC noncitizens #NCnews

Annie Morgan says she has struggled with depression and burnout while caring for her daughter Ava, who has Angelman syndrome. Morgan is one of 63 million Americans who are family caregivers.

The Trump admin is in court *today* defending its new rule requiring Medicaid patients with cancer and other chronic illnesses to prove they're too sick to work to maintain their insurance. 25 states and DC are asking a judge to block the rule. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

Computer system problems foreshadow trouble as states prepare to roll out the most significant and complicated changes to their Medicaid programs in years. https://kffhealthnews.org/health-industry/deloitte-medicaid-eligibility-system-denials-michigan-trump-policy-piles-on/

Had missed that there's legislation percolating in Ohio to do away with managed care in Medicaid (MCOs currently cover > 90% of non-elderly, non-disabled enrollees, including 96% of kids)

New white paper from myself + colleagues: Implementation of Medicaid Work Requirements: Key Design Considerations and Strategies to Minimize Avoidable Coverage Loss hsph.me/Medicaid-Wor... We synthesize evidence in the peer-reviewed and gray literature to identify key lessons + recommendations

Doctors worry they’ll get pulled into proving that some Medicaid enrollees are “medically frail,” or too sick or disabled to be subject to the program’s new work rule, and they aren’t happy about it. kffhealthnews.org/medicaid/med...

Mamdani's speech at the Knicks parade was easily the best I've ever heard at an event of that sort. I posted the whole thing on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Highly recommended.

My colleague Leo Cuello on a recently released CMS proposed rule that goes well beyond just implementing the requirements of H.R. 1 in further restricting state-directed payments to hospitals and other providers (1/x): ccf.georgetown.edu/2026/05/28/c...

I wrote this for @msnowreports.bsky.social on how CMS went far beyond congressional reqs in its already extreme HR1: penalizes expansion states, constrains managed Medicaid reimbursements far more broadly & extends these constraints to territories—> reduced access to care. www.ms.now/opinion/medi...

The U.S. Census has released its official annual county population estimates. As usual, North Carolina's population is still growing steadily - but that growth is not evenly distributed. More: https://carolinademography.cpc.unc.edu/2026/04/07/us-census-2025-county-pop-estimates/

I could watch this all day 😊

Here's the press release: "As the closing speaker, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. laid out a new action plan to promote appropriate psychiatric prescribing and drive deprescribing when clinically indicated."

The way the outfits here create flashes of blue and white is very mesmerizing.

The autism spectrum is big, vibrant and complicated, a new graphic of 39 traits shows. Read more: www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-... Credit: Amanda Montañez

This is a truly astonishing set of facts. Just unbelievable. ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/26/04...

Step aside orange cats

Octavia E. Butler, 1998:

Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:

Genuinely, one of the best insights anyone has given me on the US is that the rest of the world does not understand it is actually two countries. The first is a Western advanced liberal democracy. The other a theocratic, impoverished, violent and corrupt third world country.

Trump started a pointless and illegal war with Iran, he lost it almost immediately, he crushed America's economy and America's partners while making Iran and our rivals much stronger. He did it for no reason he can articulate. In any decent nation, he'd be forced to resign immediately.

1/ The world is facing a 'ticking time bomb' from its supply of oil, according to a briefing note from JP Morgan. Physical scarcity of oil is about to unfold across the globe, spreading sequentially through April from east to west, causing major economic disruption worldwide. ⬇️

Superb. Martin Wolf rages against the dying of the light - in the hope that those who hold democracy and the rule of law might somehow prevent it.

Amy Braier, Director of the Pears Foundation, wrote this piece for Schools Week that summarises some of the key finding of the report and their implications schoolsweek.co.uk/our-crisis-o...

Hello and welcome on the Terry Sanford Federal Building in beautiful downtown Raleigh, NC where I will be live-posting a show cause hearing starting at 4:00 ET

Better late than never - CMS releases a useful Congressionally mandated toolkit related to improving behavioral health services for children covered by Medicaid. My colleague Anne Dwyer's blog explains. ccf.georgetown.edu/2026/02/24/c...

Whenever right-wingers deride empathy, I am reminded of this quote from U.S. Army psychologist Gustave Gilbert who interviewed the Nuremberg war criminals.

This is Wiley. He has never seen snow before and wants to make sure he gets a real good look at it. For science. 12/10 (IG: smileywileydog)

My family made sure I knew how to handle a flag and I find it telling that the side of the political spectrum that won’t shut up about patriotism is also the one regularly disrespecting the flag, in every from from weird variants to using it to decorate trucks

So anyone who wants to commit fraud against Medicaid has now been alerted by CMS Administrator Dr. Oz that if you do it in rural areas you will not be prosecuted. insidehealthpolicy.com/daily-news/o...

An interesting note--One Big Beautiful Bill cut Medicaid by $1.2 trillion over the decade, which proponents said was necessary to pay for tax cuts. But an unexpected increase in Medicare prescription drug costs basically wipes all of that away ($1T).

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

Indiana refused to get good at football until the postseason more closely resembled a basketball tournament

😱YIKES New guidance from the Trump Administration's CMS cites Secretarial discretion to DROP mandatory state reporting of immunization rates for children + pregnant adults covered by Medicaid/CHIP This is close to 1/2 the children in the US and more than 40% of births medicaid.gov/federal-policy…

Today on Volts: I've got a nerdy one for you! I talk with political scientist @samuel-bagg.bsky.social about the epistemic crisis & its roots in social identity. He explains why factchecking & media literacy classes will never solve misinformation -- why something deeper & stronger is required.

A recent modeling study in JAMA showed that if MMR vaccine rates drop 10% (easy to see happen with this), we’re back to 400,000-500,000 cases a year. Our current outbreak is 2,000. This turns the clock back to 1950 🚨🚨🚨

The Trump Administration has released preliminary guidance on mandatory Medicaid work requirements. We will read and share thoughts soon here and on our website ccf.georgetown.edu medicaid.gov/federal-poli...

Sam the rural health advoCATe is yowling: a potentially great analyses but authors don't know rural definitions. Micropolitan is a rural county with a town of between 10K and ≤50k folks. Illustration in first comment. @jamanetworkopen.com #PowerOfRuralCats jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

In a rare spot of good news from federal CMS, the Iowa Medicaid 1115 waiver (this is their Medicaid expansion) was just extended for 1 year and the waiver of the important non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) benefit will sunset 12/31/26. medicaid.gov/medicaid/sec...