U.S. envoy visits Gaza as child starvation deaths rise amid aid blockade
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CBS News
3 hours ago
- CBS News
Dr. Mehmet Oz says applications for $50 billion rural hospital fund will go out "in early September"
Washington — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said Sunday that applications for a fund for rural hospitals will go out in "early September" in the wake of Medicaid cuts in President Trump's signature piece of legislation passed by Congress last month. "We're putting $50 billion. The president wants this, the Congress wants this," Oz said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Mr. Trump signed the so-called "big, beautiful bill" into law last month, which included a number of his second-term priorities from tax cuts to increased spending on border security, defense and energy production. The legislation was paid for in part by significant cuts to health care programs, like Medicaid, which provides government-sponsored health care for low-income and disabled Americans. Among the cuts to Medicaid, the new law will lower provider taxes, which states use to help fund their portion of Medicaid costs. Lawmakers sought to supplement the cuts with a rural hospital stabilization fund after some GOP senators expressed concern over how rural hospitals could be impacted by the Medicaid restrictions, allocating $50 billion for rural hospitals. Oz outlined that rural hospitals will receive applications for the fund in early September. He said the money is designed to help with "workforce development, right-sizing the system and using technology to provide things like telehealth that can change the world." "Imagine if we can change the way we think about the delivery of health and make it more about getting people healthy who can thrive and flourish and be fully present in their own lives and as Americans," Oz said. The new law will also make changes to Medicaid work requirements for some able-bodied adults, along with more frequent eligibility checks. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the legislation would result in 11.8 million Americans losing health coverage under Medicaid over the next decade. Oz touted the work requirements, saying "every Democratic president and Republican president has said that the foundation of a healthy welfare system, a social system of support, is work." He outlined that the requirements can also be met through community engagement, education and in caretaking roles, and that the administration began pursuing pilot programs when the bill was signed to demonstrate how technology can support the changes. But Brennan noted that according to KFF Health Policy, 92% of adult Medicaid recipients already are working or are caregivers or qualify for other exceptions. Oz said "they're fine." "We want to help connect you to the job market and get you into work," Oz said of people who are considered able-bodied. "The goal of health care insurance is to catalyze action in the right direction, to get you healthier, to give you agency over the future, so you recognize you matter, and you should have a job, therefore, to go out and change the world."
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Israel forces shoot Palestinian boy in eye at aid site amid Gaza starvation
A Palestinian teenager, shot in the eye by Israeli forces while desperately seeking food for his family near a United States and Israeli-backed GHF site in Gaza, is unlikely to regain sight in his left eye, doctors treating him have said, as the population of the besieged and bombarded enclave suffers from forced starvation. Fifteen-year-old Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers kept shooting at him even after he was struck by a bullet, making him think 'this was the end' and 'death was near'. Relaying the harrowing chain of events from a hospital bed with a white bandage covering one eye, Abu Jazar said he went to the site around 2am (23:00 GMT). 'It was my first time going to the distribution point,' he said. 'I went there because my siblings and I had no food. We couldn't find anything to eat.' He says he moved forward with the crowd until he reached al-Muntazah Park in the Gaza City environs about five hours later. 'We were running when they began shooting at us. I was with three others; three of them were hit. As soon as we started running, they opened fire. Then I felt something like electricity shoot through my body. I collapsed to the ground. I felt as though I had been electrocuted … I didn't know where I was, I just blacked out. When I woke up, I asked people 'Where am I?'' Others near Abu Jazar told him he had been shot in the head. 'They were still firing. I got scared and started reciting prayers.' A doctor at the hospital held a phone light near the boy's wounded eye and asked him if he could see any light. He could not. The doctor diagnosed a perforating eye injury caused by a gunshot wound. Abu Jazar underwent surgery and said, 'I hope my eyesight will return, God willing.' Hospitals receive bodies of more aid seekers Gaza's Health Ministry reported on Sunday that 119 bodies, including 15 recovered from under the rubble of destroyed buildings or other places, and 866 wounded Palestinians have arrived at the enclave's hospitals over the past 24-hour reporting period. At least 65 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid, and 511 more were wounded. Israeli forces have routinely fired on Palestinians trying to get food at GHF-run distribution sites in Gaza, and the United Nations reported this week that more than 1,300 aid seekers have been killed since the group began operating in May. Gaza's famine and malnutrition crisis has been worsening by the day, with at least 175 people, including 93 children, now confirmed dead from the man-made starvation of Israel's punishing blockade, according to the territory's Health Ministry. More than 6,000 Palestinian children are being treated for malnutrition resulting from the blockade, according to the Global Nutrition Cluster, which includes the UN health and food agencies. Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, says, 'There's a very, very small amount of trucks coming into Gaza – about maybe 80 to 100 trucks every single day – despite the fact that this 'humanitarian pause' was for more aid to enter the Gaza Strip. 'Palestinians are struggling to get a bag of wheat flour. They're struggling to find a food parcel. And this shows the fact that this pause and all the Israeli claims are not true because on the ground, Palestinians are starving, ' she said. Khoudary noted that the entire population had been reliant on UN agencies and other partners to distribute food. 'More Palestinians die every single day due to the forced starvation and malnutrition,' she said. 'Since the blockade started, those distribution points have not been operating, and now, nothing's back to normal. Palestinians are still struggling, and not only that, they're being killed now for the fact that they're approaching trucks, the GHF, because they want to eat.'Solve the daily Crossword
Wall Street Journal
7 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
Why Drug Prices for Some Big Medicines Will Remain High for a Longer Time
Thousands of Medicare recipients will have to wait longer to get some price relief on the expensive cancer drugs they depend on for treatment, while others might not get any reprieve at all. Two little-known provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Trump in July will delay Medicare price negotiations for some of the biggest-selling drugs in the world, including Merck's Keytruda, which is used to treat cancer and had $17.9 billion in U.S. sales in 2024. Other drugs, such as Johnson & Johnson's Darzalex, will be excluded entirely.
