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Unclear on the concept
Monday, Aug 11, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Rep. Hoan Huynh, speaking Friday at a rally outside the now-closed Weiss Memorial Hospital…
Um, Medicare and Medicaid are not interchangeable. Yes, older adults on Medicare might feel a ripple effect from Medicaid cuts, but tossing around “trillion dollars in Medicare cuts” is a surefire way to send grandma into a panic for no reason. Anyway, if you need a quick refresher on the difference, Kiplinger has a good one.
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- System Reboot - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:20 pm:
Who else is looking forward to 7 more months…
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:22 pm:
===tossing around “trillion dollars in Medicare cuts” is a surefire way to send grandma into a panic for no reason.===
I suspect he knows the difference. I think sending grandma into a panic is the reason.
(To be fair to Rep. Huynh, the long-term Republican plan likely includes cutting Medicare as well; it just hasn’t happened yet.)
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:29 pm:
Pot calling kettle, if he knows the difference then that is far worse than his apparent ignorance.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:31 pm:
Weiss lost access to Medicaid and Medicare funding as a result of multiple violations, including failure to meet minimum staffing requirements. This isn’t a casualty of federal healthcare spending cuts. This is a case of a failing hospital being put out of business because its financial decisions negatively impacted its patient care.
The CEO ran it into the ground. This is the result.
- NotRich - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:40 pm:
Typical Hoan. Light on facts/reality. He will fit into to DC swamp easily.
- Mason County - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:50 pm:
Absolutley amazing the number of people who do notknow the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. Totally clueless unless you explain it to them and even then they still are partically clueless.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:59 pm:
“Unclear on the concept” seems to be at pandemic levels, and not just among government officials.
But Pot’s right. I think cutting Medicare has been on the GOP’s hit list for decades.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 1:00 pm:
===But Pot’s right. I think cutting Medicare has been on the GOP’s hit list for decades. ===
That will be known in time. Meanwhile, if he’s deliberately lying about Medicare cuts, that looks pretty awful for him, so maybe drop that defense.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 1:05 pm:
===Absolutley amazing the number of people who do notknow the difference between Medicare and Medicaid.===
Agreed. It’s even more alarming when the Sec. of Health and Human Services doesn’t know the difference.
- Pundent - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 1:08 pm:
Huynh is either willfully ignorant on why Weiss is closing and the distinction between Medicare and Medicaid, or he’s purposefully misrepresenting facts. I’m not sure which is worse.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 1:20 pm:
Of course, Rep. Hoan has the opportunity to contact Rich and tell us whether he misspoke.
- Change Agent - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 1:21 pm:
Is it too late for Greg Harris to come back?
- Juice - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 1:35 pm:
The fact of the matter is that Weiss has been in a world of hurt for quite a while. Under Tenet’s ownership, continuing through Pipeline’s ownership and into today.
Rarely do you ever hear about the “great” work that they’re doing or about a high level of quality of care.
And this is a for-profit hospital, that is ultimately owned by investors, not a not-for-profit like the majority of hospitals in Illinois.
My point there being that it really is a shame to see so many so-called “progressive” elected officials speaking up to protect this corporation’s bottom line that asking about the quality of care that is actually being provided to the residents of their community.
- low level - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 1:40 pm:
I think he misspoke. He should clarify ASAP.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 1:47 pm:
===I think he misspoke===
If he did and neither he nor his staff caught it and then they posted a video with a transcript on his Insta, he’s got a real internal problem.
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 2:00 pm:
I would prefer the Dems be accurate about such things, but the Republicans have shown pretty clearly that accuracy is not a winning strategy while scaring people works very well.
- Amalia - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 2:07 pm:
goofy. or scare tactic. a better discussion would be how to locate necessary emergency services geographically. some of these small hospital that folks cling to are not places I’d like to go. can authorities step in to right the kind of services offered and up the quality? or get a bigger better entity to take over small buildings.
- Not Hoan Huynh Campaign - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 2:20 pm:
Here’s an excerpt from this mornings WBEZ article ….
“In 2024, Medicare and Medicaid payments, which cover patients who are elderly, low-income or have a disability, made up 84% of total revenue at Weiss, a WBEZ and Sun-Times analysis of Illinois public health records show.
“I don’t see how they could continue to operate with that kind of loss,” said Dr. Joel Shalowitz, who taught health care business classes at Northwestern University for about 30 years.
Losing both sources of government funding is rare, Shalowitz said, particularly since hospitals receive warnings to address any issues.”
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 2:26 pm:
===Losing both sources of government funding is rare===
Yeah. And it wasn’t due to federal budget cuts, either.
- Alton Sinkhole - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 2:31 pm:
==I would prefer the Dems be accurate about such things, but the Republicans have shown pretty clearly that accuracy is not a winning strategy while scaring people works very well.==
The implication here is that IL-09 is in jeopardy of going red next election?
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 2:34 pm:
===The implication here is that IL-09 is in jeopardy of going red next election? ===
We have a winner.
Face it, this is a bad look from every conceivable angle.
- Medicare - Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 3:19 pm:
The Big Ugly Bill has Medicare cuts. They’re much smaller than the Medicaid ones. And as others have said Weiss isn’t closing because of Medicare or Medicaid cuts. They’re closing because they couldn’t run a hospital that properly takes care of patients in a way that meets the standard to get the Feds to pay under Medicare or Medicaid. The question should be how to get high quality care to residents of that area who need it.