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Every day, patients across America crack open envelopes with bad news. Yet another health insurer has decided not to pay for a treatment that their doctor has recommended. Sometimes it’s a no for an MRI for a high school wrestler with a strained back. Sometimes for a cancer procedure that will help a grandmother with a throat tumor. Sometimes for a heart scan for a truck driver feeling short of breath.

But the insurance companies don’t always make these decisions. Instead, they often outsource medical reviews to a largely hidden industry that makes money by turning down doctors’ requests for payments, known as prior authorizations. Call it the denials for dollars business.

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The strategies range from outright reversals to “slow walking” the implementation of voter-approved ballot initiatives, such as lawmakers refusing to provide funding. Whitesell said that was a prevalent strategy for some Republican governors and lawmakers after voters in their states approved expanding Medicaid coverage following the passage of the Affordable Care Act. The matter ultimately had to be settled in the courts, extending the lag time between vote and implementation.

Delay, Deny, Defend.

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The election was over a month ago, and somehow, we continue to learn new, horrifying information. On Thursday, newly revealed Federal Election Commission filings showed that Elon Musk — notorious for his creepy birth rate obsession — was the sole funder behind one of the shadiest pro-Trump PACs this election cycle: RBG PAC. Named after the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal reproductive rights icon, the PAC’s whole purpose was to lie and claim that Donald Trump could be trusted to protect abortion rights — because, the PAC insisted, he and Ginsburg shared the same position on the issue.

The PAC materialized out of thin air just days before Election Day, filing its paperwork on October 16, the deadline for new super PACs to form. It immediately spent $20 million on ads, which featured women gently assuring their fellow women voters that “freedom to choose is important to me, and there’s been a lot of talk on where [Trump] stands. But he’s been clear: He does not support a federal abortion ban. Trump does support reasonable exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. His position is my position.”

RBG PAC’s website declared in large text, “Why did Ruth Bader Ginsburg agree with Donald Trump’s position on abortion? Because RBG believed that the federal government shouldn’t dictate our abortion laws. Donald Trump also does not support a federal ban on abortion. On this issue, great minds think alike.” The Musk-funded PAC’s main message was that Trump and Ginsburg both agreed abortion should be left up to the states, but this, obviously, isn’t true at all. First, because Trump, a serial liar, is not going to leave abortion up to the states. And second, because Ginsburg was clear she regarded abortion as a fundamental right no matter where you lived. She criticized Roe not because she supported abortion being left to the states, but because she feared a court ruling wouldn’t be enough to protect a right to abortion.

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Federal records have revealed that billionaire Elon Musk spent a quarter of a billion dollars to help win Trump the presidency, with most of this money coming into play in the final weeks of the campaign.

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A law enforcement source told our sister station, ABC7 Eyewitness News in New York, that the suspect's unmasked smile came as he flirted with the front desk clerk who checked him into the hostel, and encouraged him to drop the mask so she could see his smile. The suspect obliged, pulling his mask down long enough for the surveillance camera to capture his face.

Oof.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22816956

“My colleagues can no longer deny that this is genocide,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). “We must follow our own U.S. laws. We need an Arms Embargo now.”

On Thursday, Amnesty released a sprawling report determining that Israel’s assault of Gaza amounts to genocide, citing Israel’s relentless attacks, blocking of humanitarian aid, targeting of health and other basic infrastructure, forced displacement of 90 percent of Gaza’s population, and more.

Amnesty is the first major international humanitarian organization to outright label Israel’s actions as a genocide. The group was also one of the first major human rights organizations to label Israel’s violent occupation and oppression of Palestine as apartheid, back in 2022.

The human rights group, one of the largest in the world, specifically called out the U.S. as a major collaborator in the genocide due to the Biden administration’s policy of sending Israel weapons with zero red lines. Just last week, despite Israel’s clear, ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, reports emerged of the Biden administration advancing yet another sale of weapons to Israel worth $680 million.

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Shell casings found at the scene where the UnitedHealthcare CEO was shot dead by a masked gunman in front of a busy New York City hotel had the words

“deny,” “defend” , “depose”

written on them, a senior New York City law enforcement official briefed on the investigation confirmed to NBC News on Thursday.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/23252258

from TheForward
[Jewish publication from USA]

Rob Eshman - Senior Columnist
December 3, 2024

[this might be an article to be shared with someone who still has illusions about Israel. Also has links to some excellent interviews with Khalidi.]

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