Governor, Attorney General at odds at how to fix Rhode Island's broken health care system

McKee announces primary care system improvement strategies. AG Neronha calls the plans "slapdash."

Steve Ahlquist

From two press releases:

Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee announced a series of short- and long-term strategies to strengthen Rhode Island’s primary care system, which were brutally characterized by Attorney General Peter Neronha as a “slapdash response to political and public pressure because of the dissolution of Anchor Medical, and unfortunately, I expected nothing more.”

“In the changing landscape of health care, we need to take proactive steps to ensure our residents have continued access to primary care,” said Governor McKee. “My Health Care System Planning Cabinet will continue to identify strategies to strengthen the health care workforce, create stronger fiscal oversight, and support practices in expanding their patient base.”

You can read the rest of the Governor’s press release at the footnote.¹

“Last week, [the Governor] floated the idea of monitoring quarterly financials of physician groups, which is (1) not enough and (2) something the Governor could have, and should have, been doing all along,” said Attorney General Neronha. “Today’s press conference offered more of the same, with the Governor hanging his hat on promises of future studies and reviews, demonstrating a deep misunderstanding of the issues at hand.

“He began by calling Rhode Island’s health care system one of the best in the nation, once again showing how out of touch this Governor is with the reality of the situation. Additionally, an incremental and vaguely defined grant program targeted at paying administrative costs rather than increasing reimbursement to primary care physicians will not be enough to provide the sustained investment needed. Our primary care providers are overworked and overburdened by a state health care system that doesn’t support them. Our residents are scrambling to find primary care physicians to care for them through illnesses and fill prescriptions for life-saving medications. We are in crisis. And some of us have been sounding the alarm for years.

“We will never fix this crisis through talking points and half-baked proposals, like a woefully underfunded loan forgiveness program, which would forgive loans for less than two physicians. And we don’t need more posturing and subgroups. 

Polls Show Most Voters View Trump’s First 100 Days as “Chaotic” and “Scary”

Americans don't like Trump. Trump calls pollsters "criminals"

By Chris Walker, Truthout

Donald Trump has described his first 100 days in the White House in glowing terms, claiming the past three months have been some of the “best” in the modern era of presidential administrations — but poll after poll shows that most Americans disapprove of his actions and leadership style since taking office.

In a recent interview with Time magazine about his time in the White House so far, Trump gave himself good grades on various issues while moving the goalposts on some of his campaign promises.

At various points last year, for example, Trump vowed to end the war between Russia and Ukraine on his first day in office (or before that). Those promises were made “figuratively” and “obviously…in jest,” Trump said in the interview.

“I said that as an exaggeration because to make a point, and you know, it gets, of course, by the fake news,” Trump told Time.

Trump also asserted that immigrants in the U.S. are largely “criminals” — a lie frequently peddled by him and his allies to justify their draconian immigration policies, which have included targeting residents with legal status and deporting scores of immigrants to a prison camp in El Salvador with no regard for their due process rights. (Notably, several studies show that the opposite of Trump’s claims is true — immigrants in the U.S. actually commit fewer crimes, on average, than U.S. citizens do.)

“If you were walking down the street, and if you happen to be near one of these people, they could, they would kill you, and they wouldn’t even think about it,” Trump claimed.

The president also defended his recent economic policies, which are incredibly unpopular with the American public. Trump dubiously claimed that his administration has already made “200 deals” with countries around the world because of his tariffs, despite the fact that there are only 195 countries. Although his administration imposed tariffs on around 90 countries total, the administration has announced zero deals so far — and when pressed on potential deals by the interviewer, Trump refused to elaborate.