If it wasn’t before, it’s pretty clear now that much of the COVID relief money is just a slush fund for politicians to use for their reelection.
Gov. Tony Evers announced Tuesday an additional $250 million in federal COVID-19 funds will be allocated to local municipalities, counties, tribes and nonprofit health care organizations for projects meant to boost disadvantaged communities.
In total, $200 million is for a Neighborhood Investment Fund grant program and another $50 million is for a Healthcare Infrastructure Capital Investment grant program. Both programs are to be funded using federal COVID-19 funds, over which Evers, who is seeking reelection next year, has sole discretion as governor.
Don’t gloss over the $100 gift cards he’s willing to hand out for anyone getting a first vaccine shot…
My work is offering $200 bonuses to all employees who are vaccinated. And I am seeing insurance companies start to implement penalties to those who are not.
I will always push for universal health care / single payer. But I can’t say that I am unhappy to see some of these things happening.
Jonnyv, if there were some real teeth in the Hospital Transparency Rule – https://www.cms.gov/hospital-price-transparency/consumers – we would go a long way to fixing a broken system. Unfortunately, $300 a day penalty is offset by a single patient and a 15 minute doctor visit. No teeth at all and that’s why very few hospitals are complying. Oh, and when asked, no fines have yet to be levied. Thank your Biden administration for that…
Even the new rule proposed to upgrade the fine to a maximum of $5500 a day is a joke. Hospitals and Insurers look at annual balance sheets in the Billions, 2 million a year is no threat.
“I will always push for universal health care / single payer. ”
Right, because those countries that have single payer did so well during the pandemic.