How an empty North Carolina rural hospital explains a GOP senator's vote against Trump's tax bill
Martin General is one of a dozen hospitals that have closed in North Carolina over the last two decades. This is a problem that hospital systems and health experts warn may only worsen if the legislation passes with its $1 trillion cuts to the Medicaid program and new restrictions on enrollment in the coverage.
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Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How an empty North Carolina rural hospital explains a GOP senator's vote against Trump's tax bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Though patients don't rush through the doors of this emergency room anymore, an empty hospital in Williamston, North Carolina, offers an evocative illustration of why Republican Sen. Thom Tillis would buck his party leaders to vote down President Donald Trump's signature domestic policy package. Martin General is one of a dozen hospitals that have closed in North Carolina over the last two decades. This is a problem that hospital systems and health experts warn may only worsen if the legislation passes with its $1 trillion cuts to the Medicaid program and new restrictions on enrollment in the coverage. Tillis' home state showcases the financial impact that more Medicaid dollars can have on hospitals in rural and poor regions throughout the country. Tillis said in a floor speech on Sunday, explaining his vote, that the GOP bill will siphon billions of dollars from Medicaid recipients and the health system in his state. 'Republicans are about to make a mistake on health care and betraying a promise,' said Tillis, who has announced he will not seek re-election because of his opposition to the bill. Along with Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, he joined all Democrats in voting against the bill. Tillis later accused the president and his colleagues of not fully grasping the full impact of the bill: 'We owe it to the states to do the work to understand how these proposals affect them. How hard is that? I did it.' For Martin General Hospital in Williamston, North Carolina's decision to expand Medicaid came just too late. The emergency room abruptly closed its doors in the eastern North Carolina county that's home to more than 20,000 people in August 2023. The closest hospital is now about a 30-minute drive away. Then-Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper faulted the state's failure to expand the Medicaid program to more low-income adults sooner to prevent Martin General's closure. North Carolina began offering Medicaid expansion to its residents in December. Today, more than 673,000 people are receiving this coverage. Now, Tillis and other state officials are worried the Republican bill, which will limit how much Medicaid money is sent back to providers, threatens funds for hospitals in their state again. And it could trigger a state Medicaid law that would close down North Carolina's otherwise successful expansion of coverage unless state legislators make changes or locate funds. The Medicaid dollars that Republicans seek to scale back in their bill have helped buttress the remaining rural hospitals across North Carolina, said Jay Ludlam, a deputy health secretary who leads North Carolina Medicaid. 'This has been a lifeline for our rural hospitals here in North Carolina and has helped provide and keep them open,' Ludlam said. 'Rural hospitals play an integral role in communities both as a point of access for health care but also for the local economy because of the contributions that those hospital and hospital systems make to those communities.' Republicans have responded to concerns with a provision that will provide $10 billion annually to rural hospitals for five years, or $50 billion in total. Around the country, 200 hospitals have closed or shuttered emergency services in the last two decades, many of them in red states across the southeastern and midwestern U.S. States that have declined to expand Medicaid coverage, the health insurance program for the poorest of Americans, have seen the closures accelerate. Tennessee, for example, has shed 500 beds since 2014, when a federal law first allowed states to expand Medicaid coverage to a greater share of low-income people. It's one of 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid. More than 300 hospitals could be at risk for closure if the Republicans' bill becomes law, an analysis by the Cecil G. Sheps Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found last month. The center tracks rural hospital closures. 'Substantial cuts to Medicaid or Medicare payments could increase the number of unprofitable rural hospitals and elevate their risk of financial distress,' the analysis concluded. 'In response, hospitals may be forced to reduce service lines, convert to a different type of health care facility, or close altogether.' — Associated Press writer Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
Associated Press
25 minutes ago
- Associated Press
National Stuttering Association Brings Annual Conference to Denver
The largest annual gathering of people who stutter, families, and those who support them—bringing together 800 attendees for five days. DENVER, CO, UNITED STATES, July 3, 2025 / / -- The National Stuttering Association (NSA) is proud to present its 42nd Annual Conference, a transformative event designed to foster community for people who stutter. The event will take place from July 2 through July 6 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown (1550 Court Place in Denver). This one-of-a-kind event brings together approximately 800 people who stutter, speech-language professionals, families, and advocates for five days of connection, learning, and celebration. Attendees will engage in thought-provoking panel discussions and interactive workshops that center the lived experiences of people who stutter while deepening understanding of stuttering and approaches to support. Conference highlights include sessions on: --Parents: Embracing Stuttering and Fostering Acceptance --They Hear Our Voices: For Parents Who Stutter --HeardAI: Update --Teens: Just for Girls (Sisters Who Stutter) --Teens: Just for Guys --Passing Twice: LGBTQ+ People Who Stutter --Resiliency in the Workplace for People Who Stutter --Parents: Just for Dads --Stuttering in the Military: Q&A Session --Stuttering: Strength and Black Identity --Navigating Dating as a Person Who Stutters --How to Make Small Talk Your Superpower --Teens: Speak Up – Navigating Extracurriculars with a Stutter --Parents: Confidence, Communication, and Classroom Supports --Keynote Speaker: Mitch Guerra, SURVIVOR contestant and person who stutters The National Stuttering Association is a leading voice in destigmatizing stuttering and empowering people who stutter, serving thousands of people who stutter and their families annually. Stuttering is a speech disorder involving disruptions in a person's speech. Stuttering involves repetitions or prolongations of sounds and syllables or hesitations or blocks in making voiced sounds. As a nonprofit that supports people who stutter of all ages, we know that stuttering can be about more than speech and affect more aspects of everyday life than can be seen by someone outside the stuttering community. More information about the event, including the speaker lineup and schedule of events, is available at: Members of the media are welcome to attend the conference with advance arrangements. Interview subjects can be made available. Sarah Armstrong National Stuttering Association email us here Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Gizmodo
27 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
‘We Live in a Surveillance State': Reddit Users Explode Over Reports of ICE's New Face and Fingerprint Scanning App
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reportedly using a new tool called Mobile Fortify, a smartphone-based facial recognition and fingerprint scanning app that allows agents to identify people in real time using only a phone camera. The tool taps into the same biometric system used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at ports of entry. But ICE is now using it inside the U.S., in field operations across the country. According to internal ICE emails reviewed by 404 Media, the app is being deployed by Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the branch of ICE tasked with arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants. The app, reportedly called 'Mobile Fortify,' gives federal agents the power to use their phones to identify people in the field via facial recognition, a development that many online see as a horrifying leap forward for the surveillance state. The 404 Media report has ignited outrage on Reddit, where users are voicing deep concern about how far this technology could go and what it says about the direction of American governance. 'Surveillance state in full effect,' one user posted bluntly. 'The next step is to label anyone who opposes them a terrorist or criminal, strip you of any rights and probably use unconstitutional surveillance to find any dirt on you,' warned another. Others drew a straight line between mass surveillance and the erosion of civil liberties. 'We live in a surveillance state and anyone who believes otherwise reads too much Fox News,' said one user. 'Everyone mask up like it's COVID! We have already witnessed an attempted arrest and then release,' another user added. Some users offered practical resistance strategies—or at least suggestions for anonymity. 'I wonder if facial ID blocking glasses, like Reflectacles, would work on this. Apparently they block iPhone facial recognition,' said one commenter. 'Definitely wear a mask (preferably ones that hide your whole head, i.e. UV Blocking Balaclava), wear sunglasses and bring an umbrella. Also bring a flashlight, headlamp, flashlight with strobing capabilities,' wrote another. A few users expressed bitter disillusionment with the political divide over surveillance. 'Mass surveillance was something right-wingers always said they would fight against. Now that it's happening they aren't doing shit,' one user said. 'They are doing shit… they are doing the mass surveillance,' another replied, 'which is entirely made of shit.' 'They always figured that when authoritarianism came to the U.S., it would be left-wing. But since it's right-wing, they are fine with it,' added another. The most chilling posts reflected the loss of faith in institutional leadership altogether. 'Creepy. I remember noticing this at the airport a few years ago and how it felt Orwellian. I was right.' 'Wondering how long into the police state our remaining leaders will allow the country to slip before everything burns down,' wrote one user. 'We have been wholly betrayed by everyone who vowed to serve the public besides educators and emergency service workers. I have learned nothing this year that leads me to believe anyone of means gives enough fucks to stop any of this.' The growing backlash taps into long-standing fears that technologies built for border enforcement or national security are now being turned inward, aimed not just at suspects but potentially at anyone. Civil liberties groups have warned for years that biometric surveillance tools, especially those powered by AI and facial recognition, lack proper oversight and accountability and risk targeting marginalized communities. Gizmodo has reached out to ICE for comment on whether Mobile Fortify is currently in use and how the agency justifies deploying such tools in domestic operations. So far, no comment. For now, Reddit is sounding the alarm.
