“The Value of Denial”, an ongoing sequence on NBC Nightly Information that launched with the Tom Llamas Period, normally spotlights the struggles of people and households as they cope with non-public medical insurance. A latest story calling mild to potential Medicaid cuts, although, overlooked a significant purpose for potential shortfalls within the system.
Tonight’s profile: a cerebral palsy affected person from Maryland prone to shedding her dwelling aides as a result of Medicaid cuts applied with the intention to patch a funds shortfall. Right here is a part of that profile:
WATCH: @NBCNightlyNews runs a “Value of Denial” profile of somebody in danger as a result of Medicaid cuts applied on Maryland with the intention to patch a funds shortfall. However by no means is the phrase “fraud” talked about. Right here is a part of that profile.
GABE GUTIÉRREZ: Following a funds shortfall in… pic.twitter.com/Sg3y2nooNI
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 8, 2026
GABE GUTIÉRREZ: Following a funds shortfall in Maryland, $126 million had been slashed from these applications. Wages for household caregivers and exterior aides had been set to be lower on the primary of this month. However after NBC Information started asking concerning the modifications, on the final minute, the state postponed the cuts by as much as 90 days.
ALEXIA FLORY: I lose my life if these companies go away.
AIDE: Let me put your hat on as a result of it’s sizzling out right here.
ALEXIA FLORY: My aides who’re serving to me do all of this stuff will go away as a result of they should discover different jobs.
GUTIÉRREZ: If all the proposed cuts take impact, Alexia’s mother and father say they may lose not less than $60,000 per 12 months, cash that helps preserve her dwelling at dwelling. What does that imply for your loved ones?
MICHELLE FLORY: Uh, it implies that we’re going to should faucet into our 401. We’re going to should both promote this dwelling and get one thing smaller.
GUTIÉRREZ: They are saying Alexia’s in a single day caregiving hours have already been denied.
MICHELLE FLORY: I chunk my fingers each single night time. I simply — I get anxiousness. I cry out to God. God, this has acquired to finish. , she certified for every part for 5 years straight after which this 12 months she would not qualify for in a single day companies, but- however she’s nonetheless the identical Lexi.
GUTIÉRREZ: In a press release, Maryland’s Division of Well being mentioned prices for these applications skyrocketed by 144% over the past 5 years, including the state wanted to keep away from overspending or danger violating federal tips which may jeopardize all of its funding. Alexia feels she and other people like her are being unfairly sacrificed to stability the state’s funds.
Left unaddressed: why prices for dwelling well being employees for many who legitimately want them may need skyrocketed over the previous 5 years. Thus is is that viewers are requested to ponder a narrative about Medicaid with zero point out by any means of the most important driver of price overruns: fraud. And Medicaid Fraud is a factor within the Outdated Line State. A latest indictment, per the Lawyer Common’s Workplace:
BALTIMORE, MD – Lawyer Common Anthony G. Brown introduced as we speak that an Anne Arundel County Grand Jury returned indictments for 9 people alleged to have engaged in a coordinated scheme to defraud the Maryland Medicaid program. The entire defendants are associated by both blood or marriage.
“Medicaid is a lifeline for 1000’s of Marylanders with developmental disabilities, serving to them entry important care and reside independently of their communities. Each greenback these defendants allegedly stole is a greenback that can’t go towards the care and assist these residents want and deserve,” mentioned Lawyer Common Brown. “Our Workplace will all the time combat to guard Medicaid and the weak Marylanders it serves.”
A latest audit exposes much more wasteful fraud, abuse, and total mismanagement. Per ABC7:
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (7News) — A newly launched state audit is elevating critical questions on how Maryland is managing its multibillion-dollar Medicaid program, which offers well being protection to roughly 1.5 million residents throughout the state. The findings are drawing renewed consideration to oversight inside one of many state’s largest and costliest public well being methods, after auditors flagged what they describe as important cost errors and long-standing administrative points.
The audit gave the Maryland Division of Well being’s Medical Care Packages Administration an “unsatisfactory” score for the second consecutive assessment cycle.
Based on the report, $9.2 million in Medicaid funds had been issued for people who had been deceased or incarcerated on the time companies had been billed. Auditors say these funds level to breakdowns in eligibility monitoring and verification methods. $2.3 million was paid to recipients lacking required revenue or citizenship documentation in 2024. The report additionally discovered Maryland spent roughly $145 million on recipients who appeared to qualify for Medicare, a federal program that would have shifted prices away from the state and decreased total Medicaid spending.
The redundant spending on potential Medicare beneficiaries alone may’ve lined the shortfall uncovered by NBC Information. However Senior White Home Correspondent Gabe Gutierrez didn’t even contemplate that angle. God forbid Huge Authorities ought to be forged as incompetent or wasteful.
On this case, although, that label was warranted. The affected person who was profiled within the report has a respectable want for help. This isn’t some fraudster utilizing a “learing heart” to exploit the federal government out of tens of millions. An American in want is prone to shedding entry to an out there authorities program as a result of systemic incompetence on the native stage.
Moderately than calling out the incompetence of the federal government in Maryland, Gutierrez tries in charge the Trump administration for unspecified future cuts. A chance was wasted in service of upholding a double commonplace.
Click on “broaden” to view the complete transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on NBC Nightly Information on Tuesday, July seventh, 2026:
TOM LLAMAS: We’re again now with our sequence “The Value of Denial,” the place we examine points with folks confronted with insurance coverage and well being care. Tonight, Gabe Gutierrez studies on how looming cuts to Medicaid may spell catastrophe for the households who depend on it.
GABE GUTIÉRREZ: For Alexia Flory, even simply getting off the bed every morning…
MICHELLE FLORY: All proper.
GUTIÉRREZ: …could be a wrestle.
MICHELLE FLORY: There you go.
GUTIÉRREZ: The 33-year-old has cerebral palsy.
MICHELLE FLORY: Down this facet.
GUTIÉRREZ: And requires her mother’s fixed consideration.
ALEXIA FLORY: It impacts my muscle tissues. It impacts my leg muscle tissues.
GUTIÉRREZ: What’s the hardest a part of your day?
ALEXIA FLORY: The toughest a part of my day is ready for somebody to assist me get issues accomplished as a result of there’s a lot I wish to try this I am unable to do myself.
GUTIÉRREZ: However for greater than a decade, Alexia says she’s been thriving within the Baltimore suburbs, getting a school diploma, and learning in a neighborhood seminary because of a Medicaid program that helps pay for 2 aides.
HOME AIDE: Doing an ideal job, Lex.
ALEXIA FLORY: They’re household in each sense of the phrase.
MICHELLE FLORY: All proper. What would you like for breakfast as we speak?
GUTIÉRREZ: And it additionally pays her parents- funding designed to maintain folks with disabilities out of establishments by permitting members of the family to look after them at dwelling. However following a funds shortfall in Maryland, $126 million had been slashed from these applications. Wages for household caregivers and exterior aides had been set to be lower on the primary of this month. However after NBC Information started asking concerning the modifications, on the final minute, the state postponed the cuts by as much as 90 days.
ALEXIA FLORY: I lose my life if these companies go away.
AIDE: Let me put your hat on as a result of it’s sizzling out right here.
ALEXIA FLORY: My aides who’re serving to me do all of this stuff will go away as a result of they should discover different jobs.
GUTIÉRREZ: If all the proposed cuts take impact, Alexia’s mother and father say they may lose not less than $60,000 per 12 months, cash that helps preserve her dwelling at dwelling. What does that imply for your loved ones?
MICHELLE FLORY: Uh, it implies that we’re going to should faucet into our 401. We’re going to should both promote this dwelling and get one thing smaller.
GUTIÉRREZ: They are saying Alexia’s in a single day caregiving hours have already been denied.
MICHELLE FLORY: I chunk my fingers each single night time. I simply — I get anxiousness. I cry out to God. God, this has acquired to finish. , she certified for every part for 5 years straight after which this 12 months she would not qualify for in a single day companies, but- however she’s nonetheless the identical Lexi.
GUTIÉRREZ: In a press release, Maryland’s Division of Well being mentioned prices for these applications skyrocketed by 144% over the past 5 years, including the state wanted to keep away from overspending or danger violating federal tips which may jeopardize all of its funding. Alexia feels she and other people like her are being unfairly sacrificed to stability the state’s funds.
ALEXIA FLORY: Individuals with disabilities are folks too. We’re- we’re not objects. We’re folks first.
LLAMAS: You’re feeling for that household, Gabe. The main target of your story is Maryland, however the situation is way greater than that?
GUTIÉRREZ: Sure, Tom. Incapacity advocates say with President Trump’s so-called “One, Huge Lovely Invoice” set to slash Medicaid funding by a couple of trillion {dollars} over the subsequent decade, this might quickly be a problem going through folks with disabilities nationwide. Tom.
LLAMAS: All proper, Gabe. We thanks.
