Watch out for political grifters and health insurers

It’s tough out there

Welcome to a Wednesday night edition of Progress Report.

I’m headed in for my heart valve replacement procedure tomorrow, but with so much news to discuss, I didn’t want leave you hanging until later this weekend. Tonight, we’ll run through some of the most important headlines from around the country, including some devastating political and health care policy stories as well as some notable new state laws on voting rights.

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Who are Democrats funding?: One of the most pointed — and for some, uncomfortable — topics of conversation to come out of the wreckage of the November elections is how the Democratic Party, its candidates, and its nonprofit allies spend the billions of dollars that they raise every election cycle. The results alone make it clear that these groups made major mistakes, including misallocating the grassroots donations provided by party faithful and ideological allies.

Part of the problem is the post-Citizens United proliferation of the consultant class and professionalization of grifter PACs, which sometimes have significant crossover. The money poured into 30-second ads go to consultants and TV advertising, which creates millions of dollars in kickbacks for professional digital and TV firms. The hundreds of millions of dollars that wind up in the pockets of campaign professionals could instead go toward grassroots organizing, building person-to-person networks, and actually providing important services that last far longer than an ad that gets tuned out within five seconds.

The campaign to repeal Florida’s six-week abortion ban is a perfect example. Floridians Protecting Freedom raised and spent over $100 million on ads, payroll, and other bureaucratic expenses, yet it could not afford to even give yard signs away to supporters; I have friends in Florida, including elected officials and political activists, who were forced to actually purchase those signs themselves for $16 apiece. Abortion funds in the state, meanwhile, are facing diminishing financial support, including in Florida, where people now have to travel increasingly long distances to receive care.

As I’ve been writing, the Democratic Party and center-left cannot be truly revived without special attention being paid to class politics and a struggle to wrest power from elite operatives who run, fund, and compete in campaigns. The party’s earnest, upper-middle-class, college-educated base isn’t a problem, but it will be critical to redirect energy to authentic working class candidates and grassroots, independent coalitions that actually fit the definition of that term.

I just liked this post about Pete Hegseth:

Things are getting pretty absurd, aren’t they?

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Minimum wage: Low-income workers in nearly half the country should be in line to receive some kind of pay raise in January, as the minimum wage is set to rise in 23 states and DC. The average increase will be a modest 75 cents an hour, with the highest due in Michigan, where it will jump up $2.15 after the state Supreme Court finally green-lit a long-awaited raise.

Maximum outrage: In a little-noticed announcement made last month, the insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross said that it would no longer cover a patient’s anesthesiology if a surgery goes over a certain threshold of time.

The company didn’t provide a specific period of time — presumably, each surgery will have a different amount of time allotted — but it’s perhaps the most egregious example of an insurer trying to get around regulations that cut down on surprise medical bills and reduce overall outlays.

The policy, which is due to begin on February 1st, will apply in Connecticut, New York and Missouri. Maternal care and care for patients under the age of 22 will be excluded, the company said in its announcement.

I have Anthem Blue Cross insurance and live in New York City, which will make me subject to this policy. As it so happens, my most recent open heart surgery took place on February 1st of this year. My surgery took far longer than anticipated, and I was out for days, so had Anthem made this decision one year earlier, I’d have been hit with unfathomable medical bills.

The story is finally getting some attention tonight, to the point that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed on Twitter to prevent it from happening. Not exactly comforting.

Health care: With RFK Jr. likely to become the next HHS Secretary, there are few spaces that are likely to generate more controversy or experience more tumult than health care policy. And it’s already happening.