11/21/25 Blog: Hospitals Are Driving Health Care Costs Up, And Ask Us Stuff

AROD AND I ARE OFF NEXT WEEK So make this Ask Me Anything a banger today, got it?

HOSPITALS ARE DRIVING HEALTHCARE COSTS And I've got Peter Pitts, former Associate FDA Commissioner and President of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI) on to discuss how and why we must get that under control. Last Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee will examine “The Rising Cost of Health Care: Considering Meaningful Solutions for All Americans” and a huge part of that is being driven by hospital consolidation. Peter joins me at 1 to discuss it. Find his new book on why now is the perfect time for significant disruption by clicking here.

JUST HOW MUCH HAVE HEALTHCARE COSTS GONE UP SINCE OBAMACARE? I asked Chat for help and it gave me this table:

YearPer-capita spendingSource & notes

2014

≈ $9,523

On a per-capita basis in 2014, health spending was $9,523. (PubMed)

2015

≈ $9,990*

Approximate value from later data series (2015 figure ~$9,990).

2023

$14,570

Spending reached $14,570 per person. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)

NET ZERO IS A JOBS KILLER And we don't have to speculate or guess, because the former once great nation of Germany has already gone ALL IN on green energy! And it's going great! NO, it is NOT. First off, Germany's GDP has grown ZERO percent since 2019. ZERO. What about other non-net zero nations? Net zero, by the way, is the ludicrous goal of relying only on unreliable "renewable" sources like wind and solar. That is Colorado's stated goal as well. It's driven energy prices up in German so high industry simply can't afford to build things there now. We're going to go through this excellent piece from HotAir.com because THIS IS COLORADO'S FUTURE if we don't get this green dream nonsense under control.

WANT TO FEEL HAPPIER? TRY GRATITUDE and Thanksgiving is the great time to start practicing that muscle. When things aren't going well, sometimes the only thing you can control is your own attitude. This is a great column about why you should take some time to add up the blessings in your life this year and find some time to be grateful for them.

CONTROVERSIAL THANKSGIVING ISSUES WILL BE SOLVED TODAY If you've got a tiresome family member, or a person with made up dietary restrictions, or you just hate turkey, you can let me know and I will tell you how to handle it. Probably with bad advice but at least it's something, amiright?

MEDICAID IS CRUSHING OUR BUDGET And rather than roll back the Medicaid expansion that put a bunch MORE people on the Medicaid dole, our Governor is cutting back on services for disabled kids and reimbursements to providers. That second trick is a neat way of choking off access fo healthcare for Medicaid patients as fewer physicians will take it. I've seen this play out in real life in Florida years ago. So instead of PROTECTING care for the most vulnerable, which is what Medicaid is supposed to do, he is allowing single people with no kids who have income well over the poverty level to continue on the rolls. Because of the expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (and Colorado’s adoption of it in 2013/14), Colorado opened eligibility to adults (19‐64) up to ~138% FPL, whereas before most of those adults (especially childless ones) were excluded (or had thresholds near 0–10% FPL). Before that, childless adults were mostly not eligible AT ALL. Corey Gaines at the Colorado Accountability Project has the numbers and graphs and we can solve this problem quickly if we just made those people do something different.

VOTERS WERE LIED TO ABOUT PROP LL AND MM But these were never really about free lunch, they were about bringing in a progressive income tax. Now we know the school lunch program is actually fine financially and my tax dollars will go for more overhead or some other such crap.

REP. JASON CROW GOT WHAT HE WANTED When Jason Crow and other former members of the military who are now serving in Congress made a video urging members of the military to ignore "illegal orders" they knew exactly what would happen and Trump delivered in spades. He responded by suggesting they be tried for sedition and treason and be executed. Fantastic. Now those Democrats are running around playing the victim acting as if he is calling for them to be murdered, which is funny because he actually mentioned a trial first but they ignore that. This whole thing is another fake kerfuffle designed to make us ignore the fact that Congress isn't doing their job and so Dems can fundraise off it. I'm not participating.

FRANCE CALLS FOUL ON GROK'S HOLOCAUST DENIAL And they country with the strongest Holocaust denial laws is now going after the AI created by Elon Musk and X. This after Grok made a post in French that said the gas chambers used during the Holocaust to murder millions were actually there for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” which is a common Holocaust denial trope. Whoops. As much as I love X, my posts are getting totally throttled these days and it's not worth the Premium price that I'm paying. As a matter of fact, let me go change that subscription now.

I DON'T THINK TINA PETERS IS GOING ANYWHERE As both the Attorney General and the DA who prosecuted her seem unmoved by the demands of the Trump administration to move her to federal prison instead of state prison. There is literally no legal reason to do this. Even her fellow Clerks of Court says don't move her. They sent this letter.

READY TO CUT DOWN YOUR OWN CHRISTMAS TREE? Here is where you can do that, but you need a permit first, of course.

ANOTHER BREWERY IS GOING BELLY UP And this time it's three locations for Sanitas Brewing. They are all closing and blame the rising costs of doing business for the closures. We're seeing peak brewing begin to contract.

THE CHRISTKINDL MARKET IS OPEN! And I'm going next week so I'll have a full report. Find out all the details and the new location here, which I actually think is going to be better than Civic Center Park.

A JUDGE SAYS NO CHURCH FOR YOU And I can't see how in a world where parents are losing custody because they won't affirm their child's gender dysphoria how in the world a judge says a kid can't go to church. This case out of Maine and involves a parent who says after his daughter started attending an evangelical church she became nervous and afraid because of the way the preacher preached. The judge, a former ACLU head, decided that the mom is no longer allowed to attend that church, and can only attend a church the father approves of, which the father REFUSES to do. It's currently being considered by the Maine Supreme Court, which I hope has the good sense to strike it down. Read more about this insane story here.

VENEZUELA IS FACILITATING THE DRUG TRADE And it's not just OUR intelligence, Colombian intelligence is confirming it. Now the Trump administration is going to name the Cartel of the Suns, the criminal enterprise protected and facilitated by Venezuelan generals, a terrorist organization. He's already blowing up drug boats, and he's been open about wanting regime change in Venezuela, it just remains to be seen what that would actually look like. Venezuela is so hopelessly corrupt that a sudden deposition would throw the country into further chaos. But it's not just Intelligence agencies who have made the connections. From the Wall Street Journal:

Two of the alleged members of the Cartel of the Suns are already in American prisons. Both Gen. Hugo Carvajal, a former head of Venezuelan military intelligence known as “The Chicken,” for his long neck, and Gen. Cliver Alcalá, have pleaded guilty to helping to smuggle tons of cocaine to the U.S., and providing weapons to the FARC.

The alleged involvement of senior Venezuelan officials in the drug trade stretches back to the early 2000s. In 2006, senior officials sent 5.6 tons of U.S.-bound cocaine in a DC-9 jet from the Caracas airport to Mexico, the Maduro indictment says. In 2013, Venezuelan officials sent another planeload with 1.3 tons of cocaine to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, the document said. They created an “air bridge” which in 2010 alone sent 75 cocaine-laden flights from Venezuela to Honduras, the indictment said.

The arrest in Colombia of Walid Makled, then Venezuela’s top drug boss on a U.S. warrant in 2010 shed a light on the links between senior government officials and drug traffickers. Then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara described him as a “king among kingpins” who at the height of his powers exported 10 tons of cocaine to the U.S. a month and allegedly controlled Puerto Cabello, Venezuela’s most important port. 

My question here is that if most of the drugs headed for the US still come from Colombia, are we going to set up on their shores and blow up their boats as well?

AH, THE COUSIN WALK... If you don't know what the "cousin walk" at holidays is you're probably not a stoner. Now there is a full fledged article on the holiday tradition where the younger set "takes a walk" before the meal to get stoned. What used to be subversive is now just holiday standard.

JOE ROGAN IS THE OFFICIAL KING OF PODCASTING And he beat The Daily to make the top spot on Apple's Yearly Podcast list. Read it here.

THE CASE FOR EATING LIKE OLD PEOPLE I am not at all embarrassed to announce that I like to eat by 6. Why? Because I have horrible nighttime heartburn that was eating my vocal cords. But now I have ammunition that there are a bunch of health benefits to eating well before bedtime, find them here.

READY FOR BLACK FRIDAY SALES? This article has some advice on how to maximize your savings this holiday season.

POPPY'S OFFICIAL RESULTS For all of you playing the Guess What Poppy Is game yesterday.

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MY DOG THINKS SHE'S A PERSON NOW My Saint Bernard Jinx had to have some surgery last week so to protect her sutures, we put a shirt on her. We had to change her shirt yesterday and she got MAD when we took her shirt off. This is today.

I'm pretty sure she's not my House Elf anymore.

THESE KIDS TODAY Watch below or click here.

THIS IS WHY SPANKING IS NOT A GREAT CHOICE FOR PUNISHMENT Because it can get out of control fast. This woman is clearly out of control. And this was likely not the first time, because the other kid had the wherewithal to film it. This is awful.

She's been arrested and lost her job where she was recently Teacher of the Year. And where the hell is the husband in all of this? I don't believe this was an isolated incident, he had to know what was going on. I think her punishment should be a similar spanking by the largest dude they can find.

WHAT'S YOUR DEBT This is very sobering. Watch below or click here.

THIS COWBOY CAN HOLD HIS LIQUOR At least that's what CeeDee Lamb says.

THIS IS WHY ISLAM ISN'T COMPATIBLE WITH FREE SPEECH Because unfortunately free speech includes allowing people to burn the flag, the Bible, and yes, the Koran. But watch this.

For the record, I think burning a Bible or the Koran is highly disrespectful, but killing someone over it is not compatible with our laws in the United States.

RECYCLING MADE FUN AT BALL ARENA!

THANKS FOR SHOWING UP, HERE'S TEN GRAND That's what the FAA is giving in a bonus to air traffic controllers who showed up during the shutdown. But only 776 of the 10,000 showed up every day, and they are the ones getting the money.

THE ROCKIES WILL BE CALLING HIM SOON I love this entire video from listener Andy.

THIS MINNESOTA FRAUD STORY IS INSANE And the crux of it is that Somalis, who came here in droves to escape a corrupt hellhole of a nation, brought their corruption with them and are now funneling millions of taxpayer dollars back to the corrupt leadership that ruined Somalia. I've reached out to Christopher Rufo about it but you need to read the story regardless.