The move by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration came after the agency published a report claiming there was not enough scientific evidence to prove that the treatments improved health.
The new rule banning Medicaid from being used to cover gender-affirming medical treatments is the latest step by Gov. Ron DeSantis to restrict gender-affirming treatments. | John Raoux/AP Photo
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s Medicaid regulator has finalized new rules banning health care providers from billing the taxpayer-funded program for gender-affirming medical treatments, a move that comes as the state has sought to block such therapies for young people.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration on Thursday added new language to the rules governing the state’s $36.2 billion Medicaid program. The new rules declare that the program does not cover services for treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapies or surgical procedures as a treatment for gender dysphoria, which refers to the feelings of discomfort or distress some transgender people experience when their bodies don’t align with their gender.
The updated rule will take effect on Aug. 21.
The new rule is the latest step by Gov. Ron DeSantis to restrict gender-affirming treatments. Last Friday, Florida’s medical board voted to start the rulemaking process that could lead to the banning of gender-affirming medical treatment for youths. And the Republican Florida governor has become increasing vocal in his objections to such treatments.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association support gender-affirming care for adults and adolescents. But medical experts said gender-affirming care for children rarely, if ever, includes surgery. Instead, doctors are more likely to recommend counseling, social transitioning and hormone replacement therapy.
A coalition of LGBTQ and health rights groups, including Lambda Legal, Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Health Justice Project, and National Health Law Program, said the rule will leave thousands of transgender Floridians without critical care when they need it most.
“Ignoring thousands of public comments and expert testimony, Florida’s AHCA has finalized a rule that will deny Medicaid coverage for all medically necessary gender-affirming care for both youth and adults,” the coalition statement said. “This discriminatory and medically unsound rule will take effect on August 21, 2022, putting transgender people in jeopardy of losing access to critical gender-affirming health care services.”
The move by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration to ban Medicaid from covering such treatments began in April after the agency published a report claiming there was not enough scientific evidence to prove that the treatments improved health. AHCA held a public hearing on the new language in June that attracted more than 150 people on a late Friday afternoon.
Florida’s Department of Health also accused the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the American Academy of Pediatrics of misleading the public into believing the treatments are safe.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, however, has ramped up efforts to protect transgender youths amid an increase in states pushing legislation aimed at preventing minors from accessing gender-affirming care or transgender girls participating in women and girls’ sports.
“It is critically important for every child to have access to quality, comprehensive and evidence-based care — transgender and gender-diverse youth are no exception,” said Lee Savio Beers, American Academy of Pediatrics immediate past president in a statement earlier this year.
You know what? It’s becoming clear that they have NOTHING to run on. 1) Their idol is a traitor and a criminal who is going down; 2) Most voters (even in deep red Kansas) hate the SCOTUS Dobbs decision and don’t think the 10-year-olds should be forced to give birth; 3) Most voters hate their snearing, cynical mockery of grade school gun violence victims; 4) Ron Johnson openly talking about the R’s sunsetting Medicare and Social Security is going to be about as popular as egg salad that has been sitting in the sun for 3 days; 5) Despite all their bullshit, spin and lies and whining about gas prices, Biden has outperformed all recent presidents on the economic front and job creation, unemployment is at record lows and the Democrats have actually passed a boatload of good legislation (which even some Republicans like Hawley or Sasse admit to being jealous of) and even the gas prices are coming down.
So they are going to run on hatred of transgender people and other minorities because they have nothing else. And they are going to keep getting uglier and nastier as it gets closer to November. Democrats need to stay true to their principles and call out their cruelty, but do not let them change the conversation.
It works… bashing gays, blacks, trans people, immigrants… plays right to their base. Its a party of hate and it drives their people to vote in every election
Ukrainian nuclear plant facing “grave hour,” U.N. watchdog says
The “alarming” situation at a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine had reached a “grave hour,” the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Thursday, as he called for an immediate inspection of the facility by international experts.
Federal Magistrate Judge William Matthewman has set an expedited schedule after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Department of Justice moved to unseal the Mar-a-Lago search warrant and property receipt. Matthewman instructed DOJ to “immediately serve a copy of its Motion on counsel for former President Donald Trump.”
“On or before 3.:00 p.m. Eastern time on August 12, 2022, the United States shall file a certificate of conferral advising whether President Trump opposes the Government’s motion to unseal,” the Judge explained. However, if Trump moves to oppose the motion it could be weeks for the records are unveiled.
Absolutely. Keeps the grift going, keeps the anger high, keeps the possibility that maybe some of his folks will “take the hint” and proactively “work” for him to distract the news cycle..
Trumpanzees won’t care either way. Piss tapes, hookers, rape allegations, child molestation allegations, attempted coup, even espionage and his base will continue to lick his boots.
We need more younger democratic candidates willing to take the fight to the opposition and fight back hard. This was a group of Abbott supporters there to heckle and mock O’Rourke. He did not tolerate them and forcefully put them in their place. Hugs
The Democratic candidate for governor had a scathing response to a heckler.
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for governor in Texas, didn’t hold back when a heckler laughed as he described the gun used to murder 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde earlier this year.
“It may be funny to you, motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me, OK?” O’Rourke fired back at the laugher, who was standing among a small group of supporters of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
See the full exchange from Wednesday evening in Mineral Wells, about 50 miles west of Fort Worth:
Tonight, in Mineral Wells, Texas
When a @GregAbbott_TX supporter laughs, yes, laughs out loud so everyone could hear, while Beto described the massacre of 19 children and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Beto quite appropriately lets loose with a MF. Yep. It was a pretty good one too. pic.twitter.com/t5LLMIPXeP
“You’re doing nothing. You’re all doing nothing,” O’Rourke told Abbott and other officials gathered on a stage for the event.
O’Rourke was escorted out.
“This is on you,” he said before leaving. “Until you choose to do something different, this will continue to happen. Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state or they will continue to be killed just like they were killed in Uvalde yesterday.”
After Wednesday’s event, O’Rourke tweeted:
The parents in Uvalde are demanding action to address gun violence so no more families have to go through what they are experiencing.
Say what you will about Beto, but there isn't a politician in the state that can get grandmas to applaud "motherfucker." Highly effective crowd work. https://t.co/jY38mAmNkV
Only church certified and state approved books will be allowed. All others will be burned. No access to other information. No access to other ideas. When these groups who are a minority cannot win the people with their ideas, they insist only the information they approve of be allowed. We have seen the attempts for decades to outlaw science books, biology books, geology books, and all information that disagrees with the Christian bible. Same with sexual education, it disagrees with the minority religious view so must not be taught. This is a very dark road we are travelling down; it needs to stop. Hugs
Parents and concerned citizens in Jamestown, Michigan, decided they weren’t going to stand for the indoctrination of their children at the local public library, and they weren’t going to pay for it with their taxpayer money!
The local library featured sexually explicit LGBT books such as “Gender Queer: A Memoir” in a June Pride display, and the library staff refused to remove them from the library even after meetings with the board.
But the local residents didn’t give up—they mounted a campaign to stop funding the library with taxpayer money, and it worked! I congratulate them for standing firm with their convictions and working hard to bring the needed change.
An aerial view of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is pictured, Wednesday, August 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida.
The FBI search at Mar-a-Lago this week came months after federal investigators served an earlier grand jury subpoena and took away sensitive national security documents from former President Donald Trump’s property during a June meeting, people familiar with the matter tell CNN.
Investigators executed Monday’s search in part because they had developed evidence, including from at least one witness, that there were potentially classified documents still remaining at the Palm Beach, Florida, property months after the National Archives arranged for the retrieval of 15 boxes of documents that included classified information in January of this year, a person briefed on the matter said.
Authorities also believed the documents remaining at Mar-a-Lago had national security implications, CNN reported earlier this week.
The subpoena issued before the June meeting, during which investigators were shown where documents were held in a basement room at the Trump residence and private club, shows how the investigation has escalated and suggests the discussions had become confrontational long before Monday’s search.
The criminal investigation started with concerns about missing documents raised by the National Archives, which made a criminal referral to the Justice Department. That led to FBI interviews with aides to grand jury subpoenas to this week’s court-authorized search and seizure of documents.
Trump and his lawyers have sought to present their interactions with Justice Department prosecutors as cooperative, and that the search came as a shock. The subpoena was first reported by Just the News.
Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was prompted by a tip to investigators about the possibility of additional classified documents.
In response to questions about the grand jury subpoena, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said in a statement to CNN: “Monday’s unprecedented and absolutely unnecessary raid of President Trump’s home was only the latest and most egregious action of hostility by the Biden Administration, whose Justice Department has been weaponized to harass President Trump, his supporters and his staff.”
Earlier this spring, federal investigators began interviewing members of Trump’s staff at Mar-a-Lago and former White House officials who were involved in moving documents from the West Wing to his Palm Beach residence at the end of his presidency, according to three people familiar with those interviews.
In addition to the grand jury subpoena for documents, CNN previously reported that federal investigators separately served a subpoena for surveillance video at Mar-a-Lago, seeking to gather information about who had access to areas where documents were stored, according to people briefed on the matter. The subpoena served to the Trump Organization, the former President’s company that operates the Palm Beach property, came after the June meeting.
CNN previously reported that federal investigators visited Mar-a-Lago in June to discuss White House records they believed were still being held at the Palm Beach property with the former President and his attorneys.
Trump was present at the beginning of the meeting to greet investigators but did not stay to answer questions. During the meeting, Trump’s attorneys showed the investigators documents — some of them had markings indicating they were classified. The agents were given custody of the documents that were marked top secret or higher, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Do we need anymore proof of the complete racist white privilege Florida maga sponsored by DeathSantis is pushing. Read to the end to see the attitude of the white woman who told him that Former President Obama was not age appropriate to be posted on a bulletin board in a majority black school. These people don’t even feel the need to hide it anymore. We have to stop this spread, remember DeathSantis is the favorite for the republicans in 2024. Hugs
An Escambia County public school teacher resigned this week over what he characterized as racist behavior by a school district employee.
The teacher, Michael James, emailed a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Escambia County Superintendent Tim Smith in which he wrote that a district employee removed pictures of historic Black American heroes from his classroom walls, citing the images as being “age inappropriate.”
Images that were removed from the bulletin board at O.J. Semmes Elementary School included depictions of Martin Luther King Jr., Harriett Tubman, Colin Powell and George Washington Carver, James said.
“It really floored me,” James told the News Journal. “I’ve been teaching special education for 15 years, and it just really floored me when she did that.”
James chose the board’s theme because the majority of the students and the residents in the neighborhoods that surround O.J. Semmes are Black, and he wanted to motivate his students with inspirational leaders they could easily look up to and see themselves.
James, 61, of Daphne, Alabama, sent his letter to the governor Monday night. He officially resigned from his position as an exceptional student education teacher at O.J. Semmes Elementary School on Tuesday morning.
Superintendent Smith said teachers are permitted to decorate their classrooms with educational materials and he was unaware of any policies that would prohibit a teacher from displaying pictures of inspirational American heroes on their walls.
Smith said a full investigation of the incident, which he called an “anomaly,” has been launched.
Charlie Crist, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor to challenge DeSantis in November, blamed the governor’s “culture wars” for politicizing Florida’s public schools.
“This is the sad reality of Ron DeSantis’s Florida — a teacher, in a predominantly Black community, comes into their classroom to see posters of historically Black American heroes, including President Obama, taken down for being ‘inappropriate’,” said Crist in a statement by his campaign.
“DeSantis’s culture wars are infiltrating every corner of our state, and it’s Florida’s students who are paying the price.”
Crist, currently a U.S. congressman from St. Petersburg, is running against Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fired for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
Escambia County Public Schools spokesperson Cody Strother provided the News Journal with an official statement on behalf of the school district.
“Our office was made aware of this employee’s resignation and his stated reasons for resigning very early this morning, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022,” the statement read. “Around the same time, we were copied on an email written by this individual and released to the Governor’s Office and various media outlets before we had any opportunity to investigate. We are now in the process of conducting a full investigation. If these allegations are deemed factual, we will certainly take corrective action, as it is our aim that all of our teachers feel valued and supported.”
The district has yet to confirm the identity of the district employee who James alleged removed the pictures from his classroom walls, but in his letter James stated the employee worked as a board certified behavior analyst for the school district.
Above the pictures of the Black leaders, a copy of the Pledge of Allegiance was pasted in the bulletin board’s upper right hand corner, James said.
“Am I to believe Escambia County Schools employs those that dislike African Americans and are against swearing allegiance to these United States of America? Is there a dislike in anything that states ‘One Nation Under God’ in it?” James wrote, in his letter to the governor and superintendent.
James said he could not work for a school, or under the umbrella of a school district, that would hire people who would condone such behavior.
“I hate to say this about everybody in the staff or the leadership there, but something is not right,” he said. “Something needs to be changed or fixed.”
James previously taught at schools in Hawaii, Georgia and Alabama. It was going to be his first year teaching in Florida.
In his letter, he explained he recently purchased approximately $58 of school supplies with his own money at the Teacher Store in Pensacola.
“With these school supplies purchased, I spent several hours making a classroom bulletin board located behind my desk,” he wrote.
On Monday, the behavior analyst and another behavior coach entered his classroom to help him set up the room.
“That is kind of unusual, but that’s OK,” James recalled thinking. “They came in, and we started moving tables around and swapping some out, and I had made the bulletin board a couple of days earlier.”
As an ESE teacher, James was employed to teach students ranging in age from kindergarteners to fifth-graders. The bulletin board was on the wall directly behind his desk at the front of the class.
It contained about five to seven images of Black historical figures, as well as the Pledge of Allegiance. The individual pictures were about the size of a piece of paper, with short written passages on them explaining the achievements of each person.
“I was sitting down in one of the children’s chairs cutting something out, and I turned around and saw her start taking something off the bulletin board,” James recalled.
When he questioned what the behavioral analyst was doing, “She said something along the lines of it wasn’t age appropriate. Something like that,” James said.
James does not remember the woman mentioning race while taking down the photos. But he did note that she had also seized a picture of former President Barack Obama that he had placed near his desk because there wasn’t room on the bulletin board.
“She picked it up and said, ‘You don’t need to put this up either,'” James recalled. “She said — I can’t remember exactly what she said — but she said, ‘the kid are too young‘ or something like that. It floored me. I thought, ‘This is the first Black president.'”
The behavioral analyst’s general demeanor and attitude made James feel like she had authority at the school, he said.
“I don’t know who guided her or why she took that on her own. I’ve never seen that in 15 years — just completely take down my board — without asking or anything,” he said.
In his brand new work environment, James didn’t know what to say or who to go to in the moment.
“I didn’t say anything else. I honestly let it go, but got to thinking about it and got pretty upset,” he said. “I could have just sent it the principal. But things need to get done. A lot of times people can just sweep things under the rug.”
His lack of institutional knowledge at his new job and what he characterized as the “rundown” state of the O. J. Semmes Elementary School building compelled James to go straight to the top with his complaints.
James said the school is in poor shape and he believes that it is treated as a lower priority because many of the students are Black children from low-income families.
“I feel like sometimes they are taken advantage of and no one is speaking for them, and that school — there is no way with the Florida lottery — that it should look like that. I’m wondering what kind of equitable division of money is being done for that school compared to other schools in other wealthier areas of Pensacola or Escambia County,” he said.
Currently, teachers are in demand everywhere, and James is not too worried about finding a new job.
“I’ll be teaching somewhere in a month,” he said. “I have excellent credentials.”
The teacher was told to remove images of notable Black American leaders, like former President Obama, from his classroom because they were deemed "age-inappropriate".
Making it more difficult for smart and committed teachers to do their job well is a tactic, as poorly educated, misinformed people are easier to control with bullshithttps://t.co/J65e4d9ujb
We had a Roundtable with teachers who recently left the classroom. ALL of them expressed that their #1 reason for leaving the classroom is because of the fear/stress of this attempted “new normal” for teachers & education in Florida.
I’m at a loss to understand the mental gymnastics the mind has to go through to think that black American history is age inappropriate, other than it comes from the mind of a racist.
You answered your own question. Start with a conclusion, then walk backwards
10). White people are perfect 9). And the black people thanked god whites people were there to rule over them . . . 1). Blacks are lesser humans at best.
Jesus fucking christ, they are on an absolute RAMPAGE to rewrite history and write black folks right out of it. Fucking Orwell’s spinning corpse should be connected to a turbine to solve global energy shortages.
Keep in mind, if the governor of Florida and his fellow Republicans across the country hadn’t demonized education and black experience to the point where many have criminalized the concept of Critical Race Theory, the racists wouldn’t feel empowered to cancel race in the classroom.
Absolutely no doubt about DeathSantis attacking education in Florida. The bastard took State Education funds to pay for “private” schools. The KKKrist-O-Fascist population jumped at the opportunity for indoctrination, grooming and kiddie diddling Priests.
I am not having a good morning at all. Thank dogs that love gravy for Ron. I had to go have my blood drawn and pee in a cup for my labs the doctor wants for my appointments Monday and Tuesday. My plan was to get up about 6 or 6:30, drink some water and go to the hospital outpatient lab.
My pain levels were so bad by 4:30 I couldn’t stay in bed. So I got up. I had a long time to wait so I had a cup of black coffee, no sweetener. And a big glass of water. I took my morning pills. Had a second coffee and large glass of water. I had to pee but that was OK as I had to wait a couple hours before the lab opened so I would need to pee again anyway.
For a while now I have been getting nauseous some mornings. I have developed a very bad habit years ago of taking all my morning pills all at the same time along with my morning pain pills. Some of them call for taking with food but I have ignored that for years. Now with my dieting I am doing it more often, taking them with no food. That is now upsetting my stomach some mornings.
So one last factor of my bad morning. Next to the hospital is a school. Both younger and even younger kids. In the morning the line of parents trying to get into the school parking lot to drop off kids stretches from the main road in front of the school for blocks blocking the far right lane for at least two stop lights. This is a three lane road. It used to be you could stay in the middle lane and after the entrance to the school move into the far right lane to get to the hospital entrance which is a block further down the same main road. The entrance to hospital is off the side road between the school and the hospital and now they have opened the school parking lot to drop off kids on that road as well. I did not know this. I was in the middle lane which was stop and go and wondered why that was happening and seen the far right lane blocked with traffic all the way to the side road entrance and then further into the school parking lot as cars waited to drop kids, move one car forward, wait to drop, move one car forward. Lucky the side road is two lanes so once on the side road you can get around the line of cars going into the school. The problem is you must be in that far right lane to make that turn onto the side road. Below is a snip of the area I am talking about. The blue line is the far right lane before the school and the turn into the side road, then the hospital. The line of cars to get into the school started further than I could show on the map. I was luck to be able to get over into the far right lane right after the middle large entrance to the school, but again the line of stopped cars waiting to drop off their children went along the blue line which was my route.
From there my morning got a lot worse. It took me nearly 30 minutes to go that short distance as cars would drop kids off, then everyone in line moved up one car, and repeat. Of course these are younger kids so they don’t get themselves gathered up and out of the cars quickly. The entire time I was getting sicker and sicker, waves of nausea washing over me. Every time I moved the car a bit then stopped I was in danger of vomiting. I just hoped I could get to the hospital parking lot in time.
I got to the side road and moved out of the line of cars and moved in to the left lane to turn into the hospital and was in real destress, I was going to vomit. I drove into the parking lot, and as fast as I could I pulled into a space and put the car in park, reached to open the door … and as the door was opening I vomited hard. While I was able to direct most of it downward to the road the door was not widely open and so I got vomit on the door, the floor door sill, my cane that rests there next to the door, my hand, grossly some on my long hair. I had to back the car up to be able to step out. As I got out of the car I managed to move around the door trying to get to the grass next to the sidewalk in front of the car. I did not get there. By the first step I was again vomiting. Lucky no one was walking on the sidewalk or I would have gotten them also. I went to the hatch and got a towel Ron leaves there and using one of the bottles of water rinsed my hand and dried it. I wiped my hair. Wiped my cane. Lucky my shirt was spared and the hospital still uses masks so my face would be covered. Then started to wipe down the door and other spots. The bending down triggered the need to vomit again and I stepped out of the car and soaked the area between my car and the one next to it. Whoever parks in either spot and has to get out on that side of the car is going to hate / curse me.
But never fear my day was not over with being shitty. Just inside the entrance to the hospital is a set of bathrooms. They are single person use so I waited until the men’s was free. That is where the shitty part comes in. A man exited the bathroom and I entered, and the smell hit me. Good thing that fellow was in a hospital because something vital was dying inside him. But I washed up as best I could include my cane and handle, while trying not to breathe. I made sure I was as vomit free as possible and went to the lab check in. When my turn came I went into the blood draw area, sat down where directed and chatted with the lab person as they got ready to take my blood. She prepped my right arm, she stuck the needle in, filled the first of five vials, replaced it with the second one. At this point the blood stopped flowing. She tried to wiggle the needle, moved it around, twisted it a bit, and if you think I was happy you would be incorrect. She slowly removed the needle in hope the blood would again flow. She then tried the other arm. I don’t know if the first try had made her nervous, but the second try hurt going in and was painful the entire time she was filling the vials.
Now here is where I start thanking dogs that love gravy for Ron. On the way home I called him and explained what happened. He met me when I parked the car, he took all the stuff I had with me into the house and as I was getting out of the car returned with a small wash bucket and cloths. I went to take them and he refused saying I should go in and rest while he would take care of it all. He washed the insides of the car and got them all cleaned up, brought in the yucky towel and other stuff I got vomit on, put a new towel in the car. Then after he got done he came in and got me a little food to settle my stomach. And that was my morning. Oh and the blood work coming back in seems good, the A1C is 6.6 down from 7.4 and all the results in so far look better than the results from last time. Have a great day, I am going to go lay down. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 