Latest / Ron Verb / Thursday 3pm hour 05/14/26

Transcript

Thursday 3pm hour 05/14/26 · Ron Verb

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, howdy ho, boys and girls. Thursday, May 14th, almost
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the middle of May here as we sit down and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: get underway on a chilly Thursday. 53 degrees on this Thursday,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: May 14th. 53 degrees, cloudy overcast day as always. You
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: want to hear some interesting news? Let me find it
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: so I make sure I get this straight before I
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: go much further here today. I just want to give you–
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: this was just a little eye-opening for me, and I
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: want to see if I can bring it up. So
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I say it's– okay, here we go. I want to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: make sure I get this straight. Don't want to get
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: anything wrong. I want to make sure I'm very accurate
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: for you. Okay, so it's 53 degrees, 307 on a
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Thursday afternoon. And let me see here. Where is the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: long-range forecast? Because I believe someone was telling me that
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: we are going to be, on Monday, 87 degrees. So
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: just mull that over for a second. So we're sitting
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: here on a Thursday with 53 degrees at 3 in
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the afternoon. Hmm. Tomorrow, Friday, our high will be 68. Saturday,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: we go up 10 degrees every day, 68. Then on Saturday,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: we'll go to 79 for a high. Then on Sunday,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: we'll go to 82. Then on Monday, we'll go to 87.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Then on Tuesday, 85. Wednesday, 83. So this is a
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: true story here that I've got to tell you at
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the beginning of the broadcast. So sometimes I think my
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: wife is... I don't know, she's a visionary. Because she
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: was saying to me, yes, that's right, we talked to
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: each other. She was saying to me, I can guarantee
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: you this. I said, what's that? She says, we're going
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to go right out of this cold, overcast, rainy weather. Boom,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: in a blink of an eye, it'll be 90 degrees.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: There's going to be nothing in between. So this was
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a conversation about two weeks ago. So two weeks ago,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: we're sitting there and she's telling this to me and
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: she's saying, hmm, you know, because I'm belly aching a
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: little bit. I'm saying, well, you know, the rain, it's
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: raining all the time. It's not just rain and it's
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: pouring and the ground's saturated. It keeps on raining all
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the damn time. And there'd be days you'd have to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: have on almost a, not a winter jacket, but a
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: heavier jacket. It would be so cold. Like today, it's
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: 53 degrees. It's overcast. It rains today in my neck
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of the woods. So I'm looking at all this, and
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: this has been going on, what, April and May. It's
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: already the middle of May. And that's when my wife,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: when we were talking, and she turned to me and
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: she says, I'm telling you, it's going to go right
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: from this weather to be 90 degrees. And son of
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: a gun if she isn't right again. I don't know
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: how I'm going to be able to function. I mean,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: she's right again on this kind of stuff. I'm going
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: to have to acknowledge the fact. I mean, those are
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the temperatures to come. Isn't it hard to imagine today,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: 53 degrees? And then Monday, it's going to be 87,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: almost 90 degrees. How about the rain chances? Let me
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: take just a peek at that. 40% Saturday, 40% Sunday, 40% Tuesday, 30% Wednesday.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's just saturated out there. Anyway, that's enough
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: of my belly aching. Let me take some calls. Dave
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Thomas should be out there as well. Hello.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Hi, everyone.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, J.J., the liberal.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Did you see Trump was with President Xi today?
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: It's not good.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Why not?
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: Huh?
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Why isn't it good? I mean, they were meeting.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Because I didn't see it. I think Trump thought that
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: it was going to be... They were going to talk
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: about it something different, but it seemed as though he
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: was just making some threats about to stay away from
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Taiwan and not get involved in Taiwan or things can
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: go south, which, again, we've talked many times that a
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: lot of times this is all... You know, everybody's... All
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: the leaders, you know, pump their chests up and and
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: so on and so forth, want to see how far
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: they can push things. But this, you know, we're, we're, we're,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: it just, it's not good. And it just seems as
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: though that we are losing any allies or any type of,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: any type of validity or any type of strength in the,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: in the, in the, in the world as things are
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: continuing to, to go on. And, you know, again, it's,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: you know, I just really, for some reason, today, I
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: don't have a good feeling about a lot of things.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Interesting. You sound kind of depressed.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not depressed. I told you, whenever it rains,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: unlike a lot of people, I get a lot of pain.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: You need a dose of sunshine. Don't worry. Hot and
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: humid is just around the corner.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: You know, it'll probably go 87, 84, 83, 87, 24.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: We'll call one day and go, what the heck is
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: going on?
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: If we miss.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Spring anymore, it goes straight from winter to summer.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: There you have it. Or at least for a short
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: period of time. All right, I'm going to get to
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Dave Thomas, state rep. Thank you. J.J., the liberal. Hello.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Wait a second. Wait a second. Why is this not
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: functioning right for me? Wait on one second. What's that?
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Hold up.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: What? You want me to hang up? Wait a second here.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Don't screw up. All right. I will drop him. Hello?
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: You're on air.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: Well, what do you think of the Cavaliers?
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I think they're doing okay.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: It's just remarkable. You're down that bad, and you come
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: and prove to the nation and represent Ohio pretty darn good.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: I just couldn't believe Mitchell had 40 points the other night, Ron.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: It was great. So you're still, well, listen, I've been
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: focused on the Guardians and you were talking about the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Cavs and Son of a Gun if you weren't ahead
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: of the game with me. Kudos to you.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: And I hope they do. I think they play tomorrow.
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: They got one more, don't they?
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I think, right?
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 7:06
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: They'll make it. I think they'll win the both games now.
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: I do.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: All right. There he is, official sports prognostic in the program.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: It's the one and only Dick from Dayton. Your honey,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: thank you for your call, Dick. We appreciate it. Wait
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: a second here. Let me get this straight. Everything's messing
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: up today. I don't understand. You're on the air. Hey, Ron.
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: Hey, David.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Jeez, it was like... It's like trying to figure out
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: where you are. All right. I knew you were out
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: there somewhere. It's Dave Thomas, state rep, NewsRadio 570 WKBN,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: checking in with an update. And we're all happy about that.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: You want to update us on this Medicaid fraud situation,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: and I want to start with that. Tex Fisher last
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: time was saying that it could be billions of dollars.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Just so I set the record straight, Medicaid takes up
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: about half of our state budget, around $ 45 billion a year, correct?
• 8:04
  Speaker 7: Not a year. That's the total budget. That's every two years.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 8:09
  Speaker 7: Roughly about $ 22 to $ 25 billion.
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: All right, so when I say $ 90 billion for the state,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: that's two years, the budget for the state? Correct, yep.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: All right, so that's a two-year budget. And then if
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: we break that down, $ 45 billion a year is the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: state budget, and half of that goes to Medicaid.
• 8:31
  Speaker 7: Yes. Half of that is paid for by us on
• 8:33
  Speaker 7: the federal tax side, half of it on the state
• 8:36
  Speaker 7: tax side.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: How many people in the state of Ohio are on Medicaid?
• 8:41
  Speaker 7: A lot more than there should be.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a good answer. Boy, are you getting good.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: You know, the more you appear in the program, the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: better you get. More than there should be. That is
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: a great answer. There's got to be a hell of
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of people on Medicaid in Ohio. Now, Medicaid
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: is not Medicare, folks. Medicare is for the elderly. Medicaid's
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: for poor people.
• 9:05
  Speaker 7: Correct. And that gets back, and this is probably a 10-year...
• 9:11
  Speaker 7: problem that has just been escalating every two years, every budget.
• 9:15
  Speaker 7: And why it goes back 10 years, this started back
• 9:18
  Speaker 7: under John Kasich when we actually expanded Medicaid in the
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: state of Ohio and expanded it to folks that Medicaid
• 9:26
  Speaker 7: was never supposed to be for.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Like who?
• 9:30
  Speaker 7: A classic example is your 25-year-old working-age man who doesn't
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: have a job but can actually qualify for Medicaid.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Because... They want to sit on their arse all day.
• 9:44
  Speaker 7: Correct. That was part of the expansion that happened under Obamacare.
• 9:48
  Speaker 7: Ohio was one of the states, because back then, the
• 9:51
  Speaker 7: federal government promised 90 cents on every dollar spent on
• 9:55
  Speaker 7: these expanded cases. It's a John Kasich ticket. it's 50
• 10:00
  Speaker 7: cents on every dollar. Part of why the budget has
• 10:03
  Speaker 7: grown so much for Medicaid, and another reason why there's
• 10:06
  Speaker 7: so many folks that are on the program that really
• 10:09
  Speaker 7: shouldn't actually be getting money.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: In retrospect, John Kasich was a lousy governor with some
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: of the crap he pulled. Do you get that impression? Oh, yeah.
• 10:18
  Speaker 7: Yeah, especially towards the end.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, he was the one cutting, what, the local
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: government fund and pulling this kind of nonsense. That was him, correct, Kasich?
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 10:29
  Speaker 7: Yep.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's a... So... So we spend $ 45 billion,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: so everybody learns, learning from Dave Thomas today, boys and girls.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: So our state budget here in Ohio is $ 45 billion
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: a year, of which half of it, like $ 22 billion,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: goes to just one program, and that's Medicaid, which was
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: expanded under KSIG to say, okay, if you're of working
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: age and 25 years old and you just don't want
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to go get a job, we'll cover you with Medicaid,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: which is crazy. So what are we doing about it?
• 11:03
  Speaker 7: So part of why you could probably tell I'm pretty
• 11:06
  Speaker 7: frustrated is I've learned just this past week that the
• 11:11
  Speaker 7: legislature has actually tried to do quite a bit under
• 11:13
  Speaker 7: Mike DeWine. And every budget, there have been vetoes of
• 11:19
  Speaker 7: essentially reining in Medicaid. And now that's essentially what the
• 11:23
  Speaker 7: governor's proposing, what he previously had said no or had
• 11:27
  Speaker 7: completely vetoed of what we've tried to do.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, now, I just want to take this slow, okay?
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: So you're saying to me, just so I understand it,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: you guys in the legislature, guys like you, would put
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: together changes in Medicaid that would eliminate or cut down
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: on a cost, and DeWine would veto them?
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Well, he's really starting to get on my nerves, too.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've got to tell you this much. I'll
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: be glad to see him go. He is such a... Well,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't say it. Okay, so needless to say, you're
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: saying he would veto it, but now he's for it?
• 12:06
  Speaker 7: So, yeah, he vetoed provisions in the 2019 budget, the
• 12:10
  Speaker 7: 2021 budget, and the 2023 budget. A handful of provisions,
• 12:16
  Speaker 7: things such as, and here's, so boil all this down,
• 12:20
  Speaker 7: where a lot of the fraud is coming. And this
• 12:23
  Speaker 7: is what you've seen on TV. This is what you're
• 12:26
  Speaker 7: seeing on the Daily Wire right now. it's fake or
• 12:31
  Speaker 7: it's somewhat fake companies setting up LLCs to do home
• 12:35
  Speaker 7: health or to do child care or other types of
• 12:40
  Speaker 7: services that then they build Medicaid for. And the whole
• 12:44
  Speaker 7: concept is there should be checks on are those services
• 12:48
  Speaker 7: actually getting done and are those proper services for what
• 12:52
  Speaker 7: actually should qualify for Medicaid. And what we're finding is
• 12:57
  Speaker 7: What all this fraud, you know, Tex mentioned a couple billion,
• 13:01
  Speaker 7: what the auditor state had released earlier this year, and
• 13:05
  Speaker 7: that was actually a veto prior as well. But what
• 13:08
  Speaker 7: he was finally able to do and release, anywhere probably
• 13:11
  Speaker 7: between one to two billion that they're able to see
• 13:14
  Speaker 7: as either unclear or uncertain charges, or things that are clearly,
• 13:19
  Speaker 7: this is not a proper charge, this is not a
• 13:23
  Speaker 7: proper company, this is a company that's not even doing
• 13:26
  Speaker 7: real service. but still actually getting money from Medicaid.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: So it leads me to the question, did they have
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: any patients, or are these like the ones that I
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: would see in Minnesota where they just had storefronts and
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: were really just stealing the money, or were they performing
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: a service and overbilling for it?
• 13:45
  Speaker 7: It's a mixture, and that's part of what makes this
• 13:48
  Speaker 7: so challenging. It's almost kind of an all of the above,
• 13:52
  Speaker 7: and it's the perfect symbol of just how crazy Medicaid
• 13:56
  Speaker 7: has gotten. in the state of Ohio without really any oversight.
• 14:01
  Speaker 7: So you're essentially, and this is, I think, at the
• 14:04
  Speaker 7: root of why Governor DeWine has vetoed so much and
• 14:07
  Speaker 7: why he's been so resistant to changing Medicaid. I think
• 14:11
  Speaker 7: in his mind, the more people that are getting services,
• 14:15
  Speaker 7: the more money that's being sent out.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: The better.
• 14:18
  Speaker 7: And if we try to double-check or restrict or limit,
• 14:22
  Speaker 7: that prevents who he thinks should be getting money from
• 14:25
  Speaker 7: getting money. But that's the exact opposite of how we
• 14:28
  Speaker 7: should actually be spending our tax dollars and having some
• 14:32
  Speaker 7: type of oversight on our tax dollars. But it could
• 14:36
  Speaker 7: be a mixture, and it is a mixture, of some
• 14:38
  Speaker 7: actual companies that are out there, but they are double
• 14:42
  Speaker 7: billing for services or they are actually including things that
• 14:47
  Speaker 7: they're not really doing. This could be, for example, you
• 14:51
  Speaker 7: have an elderly family member They happen to also be
• 14:55
  Speaker 7: below the poverty line. They're receiving maybe home health. They're
• 14:59
  Speaker 7: receiving what's called companionship or someone, a nurse or nurse aide,
• 15:04
  Speaker 7: coming into their home, doing chores, helping with shots, those
• 15:08
  Speaker 7: types of things. Some of that is actual, truly Medicaid.
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: It should be billed under Medicaid. But they could be
• 15:16
  Speaker 7: completely overcharging, extra hours, extra locations. We actually put, just
• 15:22
  Speaker 7: for an example..
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Standby, standby, hold that thought. You've got to hear this, folks.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Dave Thomas, and we're talking about fraud in Ohio. State Rep,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: NewsRadio 570 WKBN, and Ron Furb from the Kingdom of Mahoney.
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: Youngstown's news, weather, and talk station, 570 WKBN. All right,
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: let me get back to Dave Thomas here. This is
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: just stinking.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: So basically you have people that are providing these services
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: knowing that no one's watching and they're billing for additional
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: work that they're not doing. They're screwing a system, correct?
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: Correct.
• 16:01
  Speaker 7: That's one level of the fraud side. There's other levels
• 16:06
  Speaker 7: where you have completely, and this is more, I think,
• 16:09
  Speaker 7: where we're seeing in the, I mean, where these small
• 16:16
  Speaker 7: communities or larger communities, they have sophisticated folks that can
• 16:21
  Speaker 7: set up an LLC, say they're providing certain services, and
• 16:25
  Speaker 7: they're doing nothing of the sort. And they're able to
• 16:28
  Speaker 7: bill Medicaid for having home health care or for doing
• 16:33
  Speaker 7: companionship or for driving to medical appointments. But it's actually
• 16:39
  Speaker 7: not happening whatsoever. And part of why this has gotten
• 16:44
  Speaker 7: to the case and that history is important. So I
• 16:46
  Speaker 7: said 10 years ago we expanded Medicaid, so that just
• 16:48
  Speaker 7: total dollar amount's been growing. But then starting eight years
• 16:52
  Speaker 7: ago in 2019, the legislature tried to start some kind
• 16:57
  Speaker 7: of checks. Right now, just as an example, the Medicaid
• 17:01
  Speaker 7: budget is a complete black box to the legislature. So
• 17:06
  Speaker 7: unlike other state departments or state services, where we have
• 17:10
  Speaker 7: line items that we actually appropriate, we have funds that's
• 17:14
  Speaker 7: in that department we appropriate. We just give, essentially, Medicaid
• 17:20
  Speaker 7: $ 22 billion. We appropriate Medicaid spending as the administration wished
• 17:28
  Speaker 7: to spend it. We've tried in each budget to create
• 17:32
  Speaker 7: line items, create funds. Each time that's an example of
• 17:35
  Speaker 7: a veto, they check on the administrative branch that the
• 17:39
  Speaker 7: governor has said, no, you don't want this. And that's
• 17:43
  Speaker 7: just one small example of how we've not been able
• 17:45
  Speaker 7: to have the oversight from the legislature, but the Medicaid
• 17:49
  Speaker 7: has been able to really kind of do or not
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: do what they'd like. There's a good number of other
• 17:55
  Speaker 7: examples that, for example, two budgets ago, going back to
• 18:00
  Speaker 7: how is the fund actually happening, there should be some
• 18:05
  Speaker 7: type of way to say, if you are a traveling nurse...
• 18:08
  Speaker 7: you're going to all these different homes, and you're billing
• 18:10
  Speaker 7: for these services, there should be a way to actually
• 18:13
  Speaker 7: check and make sure that you're going to those homes.
• 18:16
  Speaker 7: A super easy way to do it is essentially having
• 18:19
  Speaker 7: a GPS tracker or some type of check-in that you
• 18:22
  Speaker 7: can show and have some double check of, you actually
• 18:26
  Speaker 7: went to this home, you did the service. That was
• 18:28
  Speaker 7: another example of a veto. The governor said, no, we're
• 18:32
  Speaker 7: not going to do this. We're going to essentially trust...
• 18:35
  Speaker 7: the service providers that they're actually performing the service they're
• 18:38
  Speaker 7: billing us for.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
• 18:41
  Speaker 7: And that's one of the simplest things you can do
• 18:43
  Speaker 7: just to make sure that people that are billing are
• 18:46
  Speaker 7: actually going to the houses that they're going for. Now,
• 18:51
  Speaker 7: these are things, but what is the best, and for
• 18:54
  Speaker 7: whatever reason, we're not totally sure, the governor's Medicaid director
• 18:58
  Speaker 7: resigned late last year. My understanding, I've never met her.
• 19:03
  Speaker 7: All legislative talk has been that she really was a
• 19:06
  Speaker 7: big push behind a lot of these lax oversights. She resigned,
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: I think, before some of this all came out. And
• 19:16
  Speaker 7: we got the budget. The governor had vetoed prior, had
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: not vetoed this past budget, though, an actual audit of Medicaid.
• 19:26
  Speaker 7: We had not had a deep audit of Medicaid, despite
• 19:29
  Speaker 7: it being our budget.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: All right, hold on to that thought. We'll pick it
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: up with the audit. Things you should know and how
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: we're getting screwed. Dave Thomas, state rep, our guest. We'll
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: be right back.
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: News Radio 570 WKVN. There you go. How about that
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: traffic report?
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: 335 News Radio 570 WKVN with Dave Thomas. I'm just
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: sitting here now. and I'm listening to this and you
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: better counsel me on how I'm not supposed to be
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: irate as a citizen of Ohio and a taxpayer in Ohio.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: And I'll just tell you, and I want you to
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: get into this audit momentarily, but I'm sitting here thinking,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: how the hell does this stuff happen with all the
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: people that we have elected? Where is our auditor keeping
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: track of this? Where is our attorney general? Did anybody
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: ever say, well, maybe we should have inspectors or somebody
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: that goes out to some of these addresses to see
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: if the leering center really does have clients or the
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: hospice care? It's the same crap we see in Minnesota
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: and in California. It's the same crap here in Ohio,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and it's Republicans in charge. where we have the exact
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: same thing that is going on. I mean, does anybody
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: do their job to say, let's go see if this
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: really is a place that's providing services to anybody, or
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: if it's just a storefront? What did you say with
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Somalia's here in Ohio? Did I catch that right? Correct?
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: All right, so we got Somalia saying, here, we're going
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: to just have this, and we're just going to collect
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: a bunch of money, and we're not going to do
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: anything for it. And when we talk a bunch of money,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: we're talking millions of dollars. So every one of you
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: folks that are listening out there that goes to work
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: or are retired and went to work, and you went
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: to work or you go to work, you get your paycheck,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: you're making a go of it, you're making a living,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: or you're surviving on your Social Security account, These people
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: that have come to this country and are just stealing
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars without doing any of that, they're making
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: more money than you. They're living better than you and
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: are newcomers to this country. And put a comma in
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: on this, you also have legitimate providers who say, hey,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: there's no oversight, so we can bill for even more
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: than what we're actually doing and make even more money.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine... And would this apply to the same stuff?
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, how much in the world of autism is
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: funded by the state? And is there oversight on that?
• 22:01
  Speaker 7: There is a lot of oversight on the school side
• 22:04
  Speaker 7: or on some of the more mental health side. But
• 22:09
  Speaker 7: this budget of Medicaid has always been in the state,
• 22:14
  Speaker 7: like I said earlier, kind of a black box or
• 22:16
  Speaker 7: purely under the administrative branch. And That's why being able
• 22:22
  Speaker 7: to somehow get it past the governor's veto pen to
• 22:24
  Speaker 7: have an actual full audit, that will be happening regularly.
• 22:28
  Speaker 7: The auditor state finally was able to actually get into
• 22:31
  Speaker 7: the accounts. It really, and that's part of the frustration
• 22:35
  Speaker 7: on my part.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: All right, but I'll pause for a second. So if
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: he actually gets into the accounts and audits it, don't
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: you physically have to go see if there's patients there
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: or clients there? I mean, as opposed to just looking
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: at a ledger?
• 22:50
  Speaker 7: So what he'll do and what actually he's already done,
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: part of it, and that's why he kind of released
• 22:55
  Speaker 7: his first findings back in February at the same time,
• 22:58
  Speaker 7: the Daily Wire, same time some of the other things
• 23:00
  Speaker 7: were kind of popping up. It all happened at once.
• 23:04
  Speaker 7: He shared essentially what proper government practices and procedures there
• 23:09
  Speaker 7: should be to make sure that fraud is not happening,
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: but it's not happening. The auditor wouldn't actually go and
• 23:17
  Speaker 7: double-check fraud some of the locations, what they do is
• 23:21
  Speaker 7: essentially make sure that there are those kind of second
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: checks or those belt and suspenders, I guess, for lack
• 23:28
  Speaker 7: of a better term, procedures in place and that they're
• 23:31
  Speaker 7: being followed and that they're accurate. That essentially covers it.
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: But what they found was not even, you know, that
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: home health care A was national service. What they found
• 23:44
  Speaker 7: was no one's even checking it. per se, that home
• 23:47
  Speaker 7: health care is doing a service, which is part of
• 23:49
  Speaker 7: just proper business or as a local government official, I
• 23:54
  Speaker 7: had to do a ton. You just, you double check
• 23:56
  Speaker 7: some of these things. And that's the very first thing
• 23:59
  Speaker 7: the audit found and what he released, let alone diving deeper.
• 24:03
  Speaker 7: But that's just kind of skimming the surface just because
• 24:06
  Speaker 7: of how big of a department Medicaid is. We passed
• 24:09
  Speaker 7: the budget last July. It became effective later on that year.
• 24:13
  Speaker 7: He started it late last year. That was the very
• 24:16
  Speaker 7: first thing, really, they found was just there's no actual
• 24:20
  Speaker 7: procedures in place to make sure the money is being
• 24:22
  Speaker 7: spent how it should be, which was absolutely mind-boggling to us,
• 24:28
  Speaker 7: the legislature, and why even the Speaker actually came out
• 24:31
  Speaker 7: yesterday after session and kind of chastised the governor, going through,
• 24:37
  Speaker 7: here's everything we've tried to do, here's everything he's vetoed
• 24:40
  Speaker 7: and stopped us.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Even... Yeah, but by him stopping that, the fraud has
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: gone on for years and years and years and millions
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and millions, if not billions of dollars, more like billions
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and millions.
• 24:56
  Speaker 7: Yes, and that's– it's just– we had a– I can't
• 25:03
  Speaker 7: talk about what was talked about because caucuses is private,
• 25:07
  Speaker 7: but we had a pretty frank kind of general conversation
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: with our members of just– How did this actually get
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: to the point of where we are? And it even
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: came out two budgets ago. Legislature actually got past the
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: governor's veto as well. Just a small provision of kind
• 25:25
  Speaker 7: of part of that double check to set up a
• 25:27
  Speaker 7: procedure that Medicaid should be doing it anyway, but we
• 25:30
  Speaker 7: actually put it in code, in statute. Thou shalt have
• 25:35
  Speaker 7: a check on whose services are being served to who.
• 25:41
  Speaker 7: just as that very basic kind of, they should be
• 25:44
  Speaker 7: doing it, but we'll just double make sure, we'll put
• 25:46
  Speaker 7: it in code, they have to follow it. The Medicaid
• 25:49
  Speaker 7: director herself was in a meeting with the speaker about
• 25:52
  Speaker 7: two years later. She was pressing her on, you know,
• 25:55
  Speaker 7: you have this here, have you been complying, what's this
• 25:57
  Speaker 7: look like? And she refused to answer. She refused to
• 26:01
  Speaker 7: talk about it. It's absolutely incomprehensible how much this administration
• 26:07
  Speaker 7: has actually just either prevented it good government or allowed
• 26:12
  Speaker 7: and enabled all the things you're hearing about.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, I hate to say this, but DeWine's no
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: better than Tim Waltz in Minnesota by preventing oversight of
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: this theft.
• 26:29
  Speaker 7: Here's a scary thing to think about. Who was helping
• 26:33
  Speaker 7: him for three-fourths of his administration on health policy and
• 26:37
  Speaker 7: on Medicaid policy?
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: Who?
• 26:41
  Speaker 7: Amy Atkin.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Amy Atkin.
• 26:45
  Speaker 7: Who is not running for governor. Who is doubling down
• 26:50
  Speaker 7: on many of his policies. So this goes back to
• 26:54
  Speaker 7: our conversation last week.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Here's about it. Why is anybody doubling down on people
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: ripping off the system? Why would anybody be against it
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: or double down on it or prevent people from exposing
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: people that are stealing money For services they're not doing
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: or for facades that they have as far as businesses
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: are concerned. Why would anybody be opposed to cracking down
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: on that? I don't give a damn if they're a
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Democrat or Republican. You have to explain this mindset. So
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Amy Acton, a Democrat, or DeWine, a Republican.
• 27:37
  Speaker 7: Their mindset is that these are programs that are helping people.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, okay, but they might be helping some people,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: but what about all the money that's being stolen? That's
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: not helping anybody but the person who's stealing it. I mean,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: so you try to justify that to the rest of
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: us who go to work and pay our taxes. And
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: here's what you live on and higher, higher prices and
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: all this kind of jazz going on all the time. Meanwhile,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: you got people from Somalia making, stealing billions of dollars
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: in the state of Ohio, billions of dollars who are
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: living much better than you will ever live. You peasant
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: taxpaying law abiding citizen.
• 28:18
  Speaker 7: And that's, There's two different ways to approach government spending
• 28:21
  Speaker 7: and government programs. The first way is that way. It's,
• 28:25
  Speaker 7: what's the taxpayer contributing? What's the expectation? Are we delivering
• 28:29
  Speaker 7: the actual service that the taxpayer wants at a minimum
• 28:33
  Speaker 7: cost to the taxpayer?
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: And the most important thing is, it's not my money,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: so if it gets ripped off, nobody gives a damn
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: about it. There's the problem with that mentality.
• 28:45
  Speaker 7: That's the second philosophy mentality, is that, hey... This program
• 28:49
  Speaker 7: here is helping kids, and if we do anything more
• 28:52
  Speaker 7: to limit or to try to slow down or try
• 28:57
  Speaker 7: to put a cap or just even kind of double-check
• 29:00
  Speaker 7: the process, that means that some kids may get less
• 29:04
  Speaker 7: services or we won't be able to help as many kids.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Well, what services is anybody getting with the fraud that's committed?
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: The only kids that's benefiting are the kids of the
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: people committing the fraud.
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: Bingo.
• 29:16
  Speaker 7: Yep. Absolutely. But if you listen to Tim Walz when
• 29:20
  Speaker 7: it first came out, if you listen to what he's
• 29:23
  Speaker 7: been saying, it's all focused about all the Republicans want
• 29:27
  Speaker 7: to do is just... I mean, bluntly, their line is
• 29:32
  Speaker 7: the Republicans just want to keep hurting poor people and
• 29:35
  Speaker 7: want to spend less money on..
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: The important work. How about this as a cliche? The
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Republicans want to stop the fraud from taking place and
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the taxpayer from being ripped off. That's the narrative, not
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the one that they want to peddle.
• 29:48
  Speaker 7: Exactly. That's the truth. And that's what I think enough
• 29:52
  Speaker 7: eyes are opening up now. And this whole thing goes
• 29:54
  Speaker 7: back to what we started talking about earlier last year,
• 29:57
  Speaker 7: even two years ago. all these different philosophies about what
• 30:01
  Speaker 7: actually is the role of government and what are we
• 30:03
  Speaker 7: all here doing. Is it actually doing what's in the
• 30:07
  Speaker 7: best interest of the taxpayer or is it all of
• 30:10
  Speaker 7: these different mantras out there and the different factors that
• 30:13
  Speaker 7: are pushing against any type of limiting of spending other
• 30:17
  Speaker 7: people's money and of government size just in the name
• 30:20
  Speaker 7: of helping those who can't or won't or are unable
• 30:24
  Speaker 7: to help themselves. And there's always been that tension but
• 30:28
  Speaker 7: enough people are now pushing on the side of, frankly,
• 30:31
  Speaker 7: the taxpayer and being fed up with what they're seeing
• 30:34
  Speaker 7: that the balance has started to actually tilt towards making
• 30:39
  Speaker 7: these needed changes. Even the governor came out right after
• 30:42
  Speaker 7: the speaker, frankly, blasted them. The governor came out and said, okay,
• 30:46
  Speaker 7: we're going to no longer have any new providers. We're
• 30:50
  Speaker 7: pausing now as a state, new providers coming into Medicaid.
• 30:54
  Speaker 7: We'll review all the current providers. We'll stop payments to
• 30:56
  Speaker 7: any providers that are high risk, which means foreign-based or
• 31:00
  Speaker 7: foreign-created LLCs. We'll start geolocating so that we'll know exactly
• 31:05
  Speaker 7: where the nurses and the home health people are going.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: This is after he's been governor for eight years. He's
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: a lame duck. He's on his way out. He's willing
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: to make all these changes as he's looked the other
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: way for his entire tenure.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, and..
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: I am actually sitting here, folks, listening to this. I'm
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: just going to tell you, I don't care if it
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: embarrasses Dave Thomas or not. I'm going to tell all
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: of you, I'm sitting here and I'm praying that Dave
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Thomas at some point becomes a governor of this state.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to tell you all of that right here,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: right now. I mean, all I'm looking for is a
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: guy like this, that's competent like this, that is talking
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: about this stuff. Dave comes on the program on a
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: regular basis. He wants to inform you as to what's
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: going on. I just, the Dave Thomas, the Dave Thomas,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: the one and only, I hope he becomes governor someday.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: We'll all be better off. Okay, I'm done. Sorry.
• 31:58
  Speaker 7: What we should be hoping for, though, and this goes
• 32:01
  Speaker 7: back to conversation last week, but they came right out,
• 32:05
  Speaker 7: gave a list of things, kind of his policy changes
• 32:08
  Speaker 7: for Medicaid, and He's really actually talking about scaling back,
• 32:13
  Speaker 7: not even, let's take the fraud and everything else out,
• 32:16
  Speaker 7: just scaling back actual Medicaid itself, which we have to
• 32:19
  Speaker 7: do because it's gotten way too big, too many people
• 32:21
  Speaker 7: on it.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Too expensive. We can't afford it. I mean, this idea that,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: remember how cruel it was that if you were 25
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: years old, able-bodied, of work age, you were of work
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: age and able-bodied, you can't sit on your arse doing
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: nothing and have health care provided for you from Medicaid.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: At some point, like the rest of us, I was
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: covered on my father's policy when I was a kid.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: But when I became an adult, it was clear. Either
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: you got to go out and buy health care insurance.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: and there wasn't Obamacare, or you've got to get a
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: job that provides it. It's part of growing up. It's
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: part of being an adult. It's part of the responsibility
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: that you have. Just as when I became a father,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: it was my responsibility to put a roof over my kids'
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: head and make sure that they were covered with hospitalization,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: as it will be their responsibilities as they bring children
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: into the world. You follow me? It's kind of growing up.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: It's being an adult.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: Yep, yep.
• 33:19
  Speaker 7: And people ask, well, you know, We're mad. We're upset.
• 33:24
  Speaker 7: We're angry. What can we do, though? We want to
• 33:27
  Speaker 7: do something.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm talking to
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Dave Thomas, letting the world know what the hell's going
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: on and how DeWine looked the other way. That means
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: he's any better than Tim Waltz. Yeah.
• 33:38
  Speaker 7: And the last... And this is going to sound like
• 33:40
  Speaker 7: a selfless plug, but it's not. The last thing that
• 33:42
  Speaker 7: you can do or should do is be frustrated enough
• 33:45
  Speaker 7: to say, well, I'm not going to vote in November
• 33:47
  Speaker 7: because it doesn't matter. The last thing you should do
• 33:50
  Speaker 7: is that because... Enough people do that, Amy Acton wins,
• 33:54
  Speaker 7: and we get 10 times worse than even what we
• 33:56
  Speaker 7: have right now. But it will be night and day
• 34:00
  Speaker 7: if we have a partner as the legislature in the
• 34:03
  Speaker 7: governor's office who will actually work with us and help
• 34:07
  Speaker 7: us do these things instead of constantly challenging or not
• 34:11
  Speaker 7: even following through with the law. So we have to
• 34:14
  Speaker 7: be sure, and I'll probably tell you this every single
• 34:16
  Speaker 7: week I talk to you, that the vacates in office
• 34:19
  Speaker 7: in November... Because the alternative will be this, much, much worse.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. But it takes the person of Vivek or Dave Thomas,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: because DeWine, forget the Democrat or Republican, DeWine has been
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: a failure as a Republican on this. Basically, his attitude was,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: we don't want to oversee anything or do anything to
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: rock the boat, even though he knows there's fraud going on,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: just like tampon Tim.
• 34:53
  Speaker 7: Yeah. And the key as well is enough of our taxpayers.
• 35:00
  Speaker 7: And we're hearing it from people. We hear it from
• 35:03
  Speaker 7: folks every day on all different types of issues. But
• 35:06
  Speaker 7: whenever we try to talk about limiting spending or limiting tax,
• 35:11
  Speaker 7: social welfare programs, the amount of people that come out
• 35:14
  Speaker 7: of the woodwork and tell us, no, no, no, you
• 35:16
  Speaker 7: can't do that. You'll be taking food out of kids' mouths.
• 35:18
  Speaker 7: You'll be putting people on the street. You'll be ending
• 35:22
  Speaker 7: critical care for these folks.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: No, we're trying to stop the fraud that is detrimental
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: to the survival of the program. Can you imagine how
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: much of that is going on in Medicare? This is
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: for the insurance for the elderly, where how many of
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: these providers are charging for things they're not doing or
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: ripping off Medicare because so many seniors want to act
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: like they're helpless, that they don't understand anything, as opposed
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: to saying, here's your statement from Medicare, review it. Don't
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: give your Medicare number out to anybody except your doctor
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: and that kind of stuff. I mean, can you imagine
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: a fraud that's going on in Medicare? And these programs
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: are on life support, for God's sakes. Stand by, stand by,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: stand by. You know, my blood pressure's going up because
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: of you. I hope you're happy. It's Dave Thomas. I'll
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: be back with him in a minute. line at airmarino.com.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: And I want you to keep that in mind. I mean,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: we are regular users of Air Marino. So if you're
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: flying out of Pittsburgh and you park at Air Marino
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Airport parking, you just take that Flaugherty Run Road exit,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: you choose Air Marino. It's locally owned and operated by
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: a great family in our community. The rates are very reasonable.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: You park there. They take you to the airport. When
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: you land, you get your luggage, and they come and
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: pick you up and take you right back to your car.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: It's wonderful service. It's reasonably priced. So if you're going
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: to be flying out of the Pittsburgh airport, park at
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Air Marino Airport Parking. All right? I'd like to make
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: you a customer just like we are, and we're very satisfied,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: and I think you will be as well. NewsRadio 570.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Don't you carry on and run. Verb 356 in the afternoon.
• 37:02
  Speaker 6: So..
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: The people who stole all this money, we're not going
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: to get it back. They got away with it. The
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: question is, will they ever be held criminally accountable for it?
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: What do you think?
• 37:17
  Speaker 7: Here's the second thing that people can do. If you
• 37:19
  Speaker 7: know a county prosecutor who is interested in diving into
• 37:23
  Speaker 7: some work, most of these are based out of Franklin, Cuyahoga, Lucas,
• 37:28
  Speaker 7: or Hamilton County. Prosecutors who are not interested in really
• 37:32
  Speaker 7: diving in or in prosecuting Medicaid fraud. But there are
• 37:38
  Speaker 7: other counties where this could actually be done and helping
• 37:42
  Speaker 7: to keep people accountable. I do think you're going to
• 37:46
  Speaker 7: see the vice president come in. They're looking at it
• 37:49
  Speaker 7: from the federal side. I think you're going to see
• 37:51
  Speaker 7: some things, but you're right. Most of these... I'm glad
• 37:55
  Speaker 7: we found it.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad you found it, too. But the bottom
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: line is the Somalians have got away with stealing billions
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: of dollars. You'll never get the money back. They got
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: it salted away somewhere, and they'll be living a better
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: lifestyle than the people who have been Ohio residents all
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: their life paying these taxes and making a living. Shouldn't
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: that piss everybody off? Shouldn't there be an outcry from
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Democrats and Republicans to say, this is criminal?
• 38:25
  Speaker 7: This should be enough for us to radically change the system.
• 38:30
  Speaker 7: I'm asking that people keep the pressure up on members,
• 38:33
  Speaker 7: on the administration, on the governor candidates. We're going to
• 38:37
  Speaker 7: need it because things change in the news cycle all
• 38:40
  Speaker 7: the time. Something else will come up, and we have
• 38:42
  Speaker 7: to keep people focused on this because otherwise... we start
• 38:45
  Speaker 7: making changes, you're going to hear all those folks coming
• 38:47
  Speaker 7: out and saying, no, no, you can't make changes, you
• 38:49
  Speaker 7: can't do this.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Right, right, all the nonsense that you've heard. And as
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I say, I can't imagine. We know that Medicare is
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: on life support. I mean, its longevity is, we're talking
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: about a decade maybe, if that, less than a decade.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: And how much of that is being stolen by people
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: that aren't getting the services that they're being billed for?
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: or being overbilled for because too many old people don't
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: want to look at their statement and figure out whether
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: or not that charge was legitimate or not, whether it's
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: from a hospital or a nursing home or a doctor's office.
• 39:26
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Hang on. If you've got more to say, I'm going
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: to continue right after the news at 4. Sit tight,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: all right?
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: From ABC News, I'm Michelle Franzen. Talks in China between
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: President Trump and President Xi lasted for roughly two hours
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: and the war with Iran loomed large on the agenda.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: The U.S.
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: Signaling it was open for China to help with the
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. ABC's Selena Wang is
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: in Beijing.
• 39:56
  Speaker 5: The U.S.
• 39:57
  Speaker 8: Readout mentioned that both leaders agree the strait needs to
• 40:00
  Speaker 8: be open, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. But
• 40:03
  Speaker 8: we didn't get any of that from the Chinese readout.
• 40:05
  Speaker 8: No mention of the strait or even Iran at all
• 40:08
  Speaker 8: by name, which reflects what experts have been telling me,
• 40:11
  Speaker 8: which is that while Beijing wants this war to end,
• 40:13
  Speaker 8: they see it as America's problem to solve. They don't
• 40:16
  Speaker 8: want to get pulled in too deeply.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: Americans kept up spending in April, but at a slower pace,
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: according to the latest retail sales report, concerns over the
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: war increasing along with prices on goods. In California, a
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: civil case brought by Elon Musk against OpenAI's Sam Altman
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: is nearing an end. Closing arguments got underway today. ABC
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: legal contributor and Hofstra Law professor James Sample has more.
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: Elon Musk's lawsuit essentially says that Sam Altman and the
• 40:42
  Speaker 5: OpenAI team turned what was supposed to be exclusively or
• 40:47
  Speaker 5: at least primarily a nonprofit into one of the biggest
• 40:50
  Speaker 5: companies in America on a for-profit basis. Sam Altman and
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: the OpenAI team say that Elon Musk is essentially a
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: sour grapes individual who had an opportunity to stay with
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: the company, who himself saw the need for a for-profit model,
• 41:04
  Speaker 5: and who left under really bitter and unpleasant terms.
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: In New Mexico, officials say all four people on board
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: the medical aircraft that crashed earlier today died. They also
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: located the plane in Lincoln County. The cause of that
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: crash remains under investigation. Severe storms targeting parts of the
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: Midwest and South today. Thunderstorms meantime in the Rockies in
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: the past 24 hours recorded gale and hurricane force winds
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. A dust storm in
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: Utah caused an eight-vehicle pileup, injuring at least seven people.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: You're listening to ABC News.