Kat McGowan

One of my deeply held beliefs is that if we could condition people to accept how chance affects their lives, they’d be much better equipped to recognize how systemic things impact them.

Donations to NPR and PBS Stations Surge After Funding Cuts

scoop: donations to NPR and PBS stations have exploded, with donors across the country giving in unprecedented numbers since Congress cut federal funding

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/b...

Wired has been absolutely killing it lately.

My TikTok feed is full of clinicians who are convinced that DJT has congestive heart failure of some kind, not just venous insufficiency. Of course it's just speculation, but interesting that it seems to only crop up there. I haven't seen this claim anywhere else.

Fluffy rosella baby covered in grey fuzz held in a hand

The mug on this baby rosella 💚🩵💚

Currently surgeons are required to do any of 1,700 procedures in the hospital. Trump admin plans to phase that rule out. Sounds good. But if patient goes home after major surgery, who takes care of them? You know the answer: most likely, a family caregiver.
www.statnews.com/2025/07/17/m...

White and red mallows painting

Mallows, Mary Elizabeth Price, 1929.

This is amazing, watch!

Dietrich in a shiny sort of dress and a huge blonde wig and what I think is promotional shot for Blonde Venus she's this is the outfit she wears after she gets out of her gorilla costume in the amazing and quite racist jungle dance nightclub scene

Marlene Dietrich, 1932

These are the true stories that drove me to make phone calls. It’s the providers & broken systems that cause wasteful dollars with Medicaid. No one cared because they never experienced anything like what some families go through and the tough decisions they make to keep family members safe. 💔

About that record-high share of Americans saying immigration is good for the country: The surge is primarily driven by *Republicans* changing their tune. Rs have become much more positive on immigration than they had been before Trump took office.

A broken system forces parents to DIY hospital-level care for their medically complex children “Eventually I just stopped sleeping and did it all myself”: Parents of medically complex kids find that Medicaid won’t cover proper equipment or trained nursing assistance.

Read it and cringe: Parents forced to invent and improvise medical devices for their medically fragile children because they can't get the right equipment and help at home: www.statnews.com/2025/06/09/i...

After a child care worker is detained by ICE, a community is left reeling Nicolle Orozco Forero is one of the thousands of immigrant women who provide child care for American children, and one of the few who cares for children with disabilities. Now she and her seriously il...

What's happening with immigration is already changing caregiving. In the long-term care (nursing home and the like) situation, 28% of the people doing hands-on work are immigrants. And then there's this: 19thnews.org/2025/07/chil...

Kennedy abruptly cancels preventative care committee meeting HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has abruptly canceled a meeting of the USPSTF, an expert panel that evaluates the nation’s preventative care recommendations.

BREAKING: Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has abruptly canceled a meeting of the USPSTF expert panel that to some degree controls which preventative services are covered under insurance with its recommendations.

No reason was given.

More @statnews.com:
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www.statnews.com/2025/07/09/u...

Dr. Megan Hebdon’s (@m3hebdon) research through the University of Utah on millennial family caregivers shows that the most common and striking concerns were employment and financial challenges.

California scrubjay named Mr. Peanut looking spruce

Mr. Peanut emerges from his bath shining and triumphant. He’s considering mounting a primary challenge for our congressional district. He’s got my vote.

Trump’s latest policy announcement is aimed at women voters. It doesn’t stand up This is a ‘concept of a plan’ with no real economic backbone, experts tell Eric Garcia

Hey wait a second: Trump pledged that he would pass a caregiving tax credit during the final leg of the campaign. The One Big, Beautful Act DOES NOT HAVE THAT! He campaigned on that in the final days! I know! I saw him do it in Gastona, NC!
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Gmail inbox showing a suspicious email from "Bavferich Waldwinkel"

New undercover name: Bavferich Waldwinkel. AI spam generator is on one today

The Medicaid look back period is 5 years. There are estate lawyers who specialize in Medicaid “spend down” so people don’t accidentally fuck themselves over. You can’t even have a life insurance policy w a cash payout option!! Your parents will be paying $7k-$11k per person per month for care!!!

Good question!

Also, Medicaid isn't just poor-people health insurance. It's the main payer for long-term care. Middle-class people can't afford nursing homes either at ~125k/yr. The typical outcome is that they "pay down" (go broke paying for care) to become eligible for Medicaid.

There's a lot of focus on what Medicaid and ACA cuts would mean for hospitals, because hospitals have lobbyists. That doesn't negate what the cuts would mean for people, with about 12 million people projected to become uninsured due to the megabill.

Commentary: Trump was winning with Latinos. Now, his cruelty is derailing him Trump risks making the mistake California Republicans made in the 1980s and 1990s: taking a political win they earned with Latinos and turning it into trash.

MY LATEST @latimes.com COLUMNA:‬⁩ Trump was winning with Latinos. Now, his cruelty is derailing him. Share, porfas!

I would leave it alone. In my experience they usually figure it out and either grow around the shade or cut bait (drop the leaf themselves).

The cooperative difference: perceived drivers of higher care quality at home care cooperatives Home care workers’ input into patient care, motivation as co-owners, selection of other invested caregivers, and access to hands-on training may be importa

Interesting paper about home care cooperatives, which are worker-owned agencies that supply paid caregivers to help in the home. I did not know this is a thing, but apparently leads to better care: academic.oup.com/healthaffair...

Wyden, Warner, Merkley and Schumer Highlight Threat to Nursing Homes if GOP Approves Medicaid Cuts | The United States Senate Committee on Finance Wyden, Warner, Merkley and Schumer Highlight Threat to Nursing Homes if GOP Approves Medicaid Cuts

If the 10-year budget includes the proposed trims of Medicaid spending, these 579 nursing homes will likely close, says Sen. Wyden. Medicaid paysfor 60% of nursing home stays. www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-memb...

I don't think the average American understands how many folks pay for nursing home care through Medicaid. It's not just poor people. This is oversimplifying but, the way our system is set up is that you sell everything you own to pay for it, then you apply for medicaid to pay for the rest.

Bald eagle via Indiana Audubon

Roseate spoonbill via Audubon

All I'm going to say is that if the USA was less about bald eagles and more about roseate spoonbills the world might be a better place.

Best Buy ditches home care platform Current Health Retail giant Best Buy is selling its home-based care subsidiary, Current Health, back to the firm’s original founder, Christopher McGhee.

Best Buy early on made some bold moves investing in tech for health-care-at-home. Now it's dumping Current Health, a company it bought in 2021 for $400M. Current does home monitoring tech plus hospital-at-home. Wonder if this is a blip, or start of a trend. www.mcknightshomecare.com/news/best-bu...

Chart from Pew Research showing that only 17 percent of people pay for any news at all

I was messing around with some new-to-me AI tools yesterday. Between that and reports like this one from Pew, I just don't see how the business of news will survive. It's cratered since I started working as a journalist. It looks like it's gonna get worse!
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...