RFK says Tylenol is behind the rise in autism. I never believed that theory.
Medicaid Fraud
For years, I have maintained the huge rise in the diagnoses of autism, ADHD, back pain, and other disabilities is fraud.
The autism scam in Minnesota finally brings the issue to a head.
Please consider the Wall Street Journal reports Why Is Autism Exploding? Welfare Fraud Is One Reason
Diagnosis rates of autism among children have more than tripled over the past 15 years. One reason, which Minnesota’s welfare scandal lays bare with shocking details, is Medicaid fraud and abuse.
Medicaid pays healthcare providers big bucks to diagnose and treat children with autism—sometimes tens of thousands of dollars a month for a single child. Yet states rarely verify that kids who are diagnosed actually meet the medical criteria for the disorder or that they get appropriate treatment from qualified specialists.
The result: Children covered by Medicaid or the government-run Children’s Health Insurance Program are 2.5 times as likely as those with private coverage to be diagnosed with autism. Many lower-income kids are labeled autistic merely because they have behavioral or developmental problems.
In 2014 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began requiring state Medicaid programs to cover autism therapy such as applied behavior analysis or ABA, a technique that uses positive reinforcement to improve social and communication skills. ObamaCare plans are also required to cover such therapy as an “essential benefit.”
In Minnesota, the number of autism providers soared 700%, and payments to them increased 3,000% between 2018 and 2023. According to a federal indictment, Asha Farhan Hassan set up the ABA therapy provider Smart Therapy, which employed young relatives with no formal education beyond a high school education as “behavioral technicians.”
Ms. Hassan and her business partners allegedly recruited parents by paying them monthly kickbacks of up to $1,500 a child. She worked with a licensed therapist “to get the recruited child qualified for autism services. There was no child that Smart Therapy was not able to get qualified for autism services,” according to the indictment.
She allegedly billed Medicaid for therapy that wasn’t provided and paid the kickbacks to parents out of the proceeds. “Often, parents threatened to leave Smart Therapy and take their children to other autism centers if they did not get paid higher kickbacks,” the indictment alleges. “Several larger families left Smart Therapy after being offered larger kickbacks by other autism centers.” Ms. Hassan’s lawyer has said that she will plead guilty.
Federal audits of Medicaid spending on autism therapies in Indiana and Wisconsin have also turned up widespread abuses. Nearly all Medicaid payments were improper or potentially improper—meaning the providers didn’t adhere to federal requirements.
The Wisconsin audit found providers routinely billed for more-intensive treatment than they provided, including time when kids were napping or “blowing bubbles.” Massachusetts’ audit identified more than 600 instances in which autism providers billed Medicaid for more than 24 hours of service for a patient on a given date. Between 2017 and 2023, Indiana’s Medicaid spending on ABA autism therapy increased nearly 30-fold. Nebraska’s has surged some 20-fold since 2020.
I feel vindicated. But I have been writing about this for years.
Clinton Ended Welfare As We Know It
On March 27, 2013, I noted Unwilling to Work; 25% in Hale County AL Collect Disability, 14 Million Nationwide; A Simple Solution
How Easy is it to Get Disability?
Hale county’s Dr. Timberlake asks a simple question to all his patients. “What grade did you finish?” If you claim “back pain” and do not have a degree, Timberlake believes you are disabled.
Clinton Ends Welfare As We Know It
In 1996 Bill Clinton signed a welfare reform act, that he proclaimed to be the “End of Welfare As We Know It”. It was. People moved off welfare on to even easier to get disability programs.
Part of Clinton’s welfare reform plan pushed states to get people on welfare into jobs, partly by making states pay a much larger share of welfare costs.
The incentive “worked” using the term loosely. Welfare rolls shrank but disability rolls soared.
Simple Solution
One easy way to eliminate some of the fraud would be to put someone in charge of making a case for the other side. No, we do not need new Federal programs. All we need do is “Un-end Welfare as We Know It“.
If states had any incentive to stop disability fraud, we would not have so much of it. Make states responsible for a large portion of disability claims just as they are for welfare, and the number of people collecting disability will collapse.
September 11, 2013: States Have an Incentive to Promote (Not Stop) Disability Fraud; So How Much Fraud Is There?
The federal government pays disability, but states pay part of welfare costs. This creates a huge incentive for states to actively promote disability fraud (simply to get people off state-sponsored welfare programs).
Here is a curious story on the meaning of “disability“.
The US Social Security Administration has been offering disability benefits to Spanish speakers living in Puerto Rico based on their inability to speak English, despite Spanish being the territory’s primary language.
October 4, 2015: Fraudulent Medicare, Medicaid, EITC, Tax Refunds, etc. Total $1 Trillion Since 2003
A huge chunk of your tax dollars every year goes straight into the pockets of crooks. Nearly one in three earned income credits (EIC) is fraudulent. And the numbers keep getting bigger every year according to the Government Accountability Office.
December 19, 2019: Idiotic Idea of the Day: End Homelessness As We Know It
The Democratic mayor’s plan to “end street homelessness as we know it” includes adding 1,000 new “safe haven” beds in churches and other non-profits and 1,000 apartments earmarked for homeless people.
Please recall Bill Clinton’s plan to “End Welfare As We Know It”.
You might be surprised to learn that president Clinton did indeed do what he said.
Unfortunately, it was not a success story. Please consider “End Welfare As We Know It“.
I suspect Bill de Blasio will have a similar measure of “success”.
If after this you are still thinking of donating money to aid the poor, please note Vatican Spends 90% of Donations for the Poor On Itself
February 12, 2025: Trump Says he Will Love and Cherish Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
The new softer side of Trump now cherishes Medicaid. Is everyone happy?
May 14, 2025: Almost Half of New York City Is on Medicaid, So Is 40 Percent of California
Bill Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it.” What happened?
Tylenol or Fraud?
I have been making the fraud case since no later than 2013.
People have been taking acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol), for over a century, while the Tylenol brand itself was introduced in 1955.
RFK is bogged down in Tylenol silliness. He is unfit for the job. And although I have no use for Covid vaccines (admittedly an errant late-comer), the RFK’s attack on measles and other vaccines is idiotic.
Measles, smallpox, and polio vaccines have saved millions of lives. It is foolish to be on a total anti-vax campaign. He is unqualified for the job.
Why do we have to choose between idiotic extremes?
Regardless, we have a strong case what the rise in autism, ADHD, back pain, and other disabilities is really about.
It’s the money stupid! And where there’s money there’s fraud.
How Do We Fix This?
We need to undo welfare as we know it. But that will not happen until states have a huge incentive to stop fraud.
Of course we could end the program. However, that is a zero-chance probability so we must think harder.
One of my suggestions was to give states a fixed block amount to spend, ending Federal involvement.
Then instead of attempting to dump fraud back on the Federal government, states would have an incentive to end the fraud.
Universal Free Money
Please note that Trump Embraces Universal Basic Income
Trump on Truth Social: I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over. In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare. Unrelated, we must still terminate the Filibuster!
Republicans have had many chances to fix this. They never even try.
And to add insult to injury Trump Says It ‘May Be Necessary’ to Extend Obamacare Subsidies
Trump says the “unaffordable care act has been a disaster ” that it “may be necessary” to extend it.
Thanks! I made a note to add that to my book of twisted government logic if and when I get to writing it.
Q: But what does Trump really want?
A: Free money. UBI
Q: Wouldn’t that be worse?
A: Of course, the spigot would never stop.
I fear that free money will be on the 2026 “buy votes” agenda.
RFK claims that the drop in mortality rates of most of these infectious diseases pre-dated the introduction of the vaccines, and correlates strongly to the introduction of chlorination into the water supply….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK8e1iMNY6c
Mish this is the second time this week you’ve loudly griped about the abuses of such systems… without demonstrating you understand how that system works. Over and over you claim that autism and back pain earn you automatic disability, with zero mention of how much that supposedly pays or how you actually qualify. Go ahead, link some more articles from 2013 and the WSJ opinion section. It really looks great for this argument!
It’s hard to take this blog seriously when every other post is an expedition into something you don’t know well, presented as if you do. Economics? Sure, you’re wonderful. The rest? Flying by the seat of your pants, flimsy sourcing, or asking Grok stuff.
Addendum: I’m sorry this was how you had to find out most of your readers were genuine morons who want their kids to have measles and polio.
From the WSJ article….”…Diagnosis rates of autism among children have more than tripled over the past 15 years…”
I’m sure some autism is related to fraud, but I don’t buy that fraud is the primary, secondary, or even the tertiary cause for the rise in autism. My wife has been an elementary school teacher for over 20 years. Anecdotally, she has seen a large increase in autism and autistic like behaviors in many of her students, particularly over the past decade or so. In general, kids can’t pay attention, they have scant emotional regulation, and poor social skills. Why? What has changed in the last 10-15 years? The answer is easy to find, just go to a grocery store, mall, big box store, or restaurant and observe what the young kids are doing. Many, if not most, have their heads buried in a phone or tablet. The iPhone was released June 2007, 18 year ago….
To much screen time with devices like smart phones and tablets negatively impacts developing minds. The scientific evidence supporting this is piling fast, but RFK goes after Tylenol or vaccines as the cause. Now the WSJ is adding fraud to the list. Good Grief!!!
My son is autistic (for real), and I’ve read way to many stories over his 21 yrs around causes.
Mark my words, some day they will find out that telling mothers it’s OK to take anti-anxiety and anti-depression drugs while pregnant at any dose you want is a major cause.
NO WAY these drugs change the brain chemistry of a mother and not a developing fetus.
I have heard similiar as you describe
Well said. I totally agree with you.
Your last sentence is where studies need to focus on.
I was vehemently opposed to the $1.7T djt conjured up during COVID and certainly even less pleased with the 2nd tranche and Joey’s follow up. Those 3 giveaways are a large % of the interest the gov is paying out now. We need some kind of guardrails in place so this cannot happen again. BTW all 3 of those handouts are still in our savings accounts. Not needed. As far as welfare, medicaid goes, let’s rout out the fraud, claw that $ back and whittle the programs down to only those in need. There should be NO pushback from anyone of any party except fraudsters.
“Measles, smallpox, and polio vaccines have saved millions of lives. It is foolish to be on a total anti-vax campaign. He is unqualified for the job.”
Nine peer reviewed studies determined that unvaccinated children are healthier than vaccinated.
“Saved millions of lives” is a narrative. 58% of SIDS deaths occur within 3 days after a vaccination. Zero in the 3 days prior to a scheduled vaccination. The public health agencies have been claiming they don’t know why SIDS occurs.
Niki Mayer, of the Oscar Mayer family, took 6 childhood vaccinations to go on a vacation at age 29. She received brain damage as a result, which left her debilitated, unable to work.
“Four-month-old Josette Petrone received six vaccines at a routine wellness visit. Two days later, she went down for her afternoon nap and never woke up again.” SIDS death.
No childhood vaccine has been tested against an actual inert placebo. Nor has it been tested in relation to multiple vaccinations at once or the cumulative effect of the schedule of 72 vaccinations. The rate of autism has increased along with the number of shots that children have been given since 1986 vaccine Act.
RFK Jr. wants the scientific studies performed.
My first kid could not get the rotavirus vax since the earlier vax was halted due to intestinal looping and fatalities. At 3 years old, she got the actual rotavirus. That was about 4 days of diarrhea and lots of sleeping. My second kid at 3 months old got the rotavirus vax because it was available. She screamed nightly and had diarrhea for 4 months straight. She was unable to breast feed after the vax and had to be switched to formula.
I filed this with VAERS and it requested the notes from the pediatrician and my kid’s 2 day hospital stay. The VAERS clinicians determined it was vax related.
The vax does (a lot of) more harm than good evidence is piling up by the day. Essentially a showdown between big pharma + the great vaccinator’s WHO etc. and the population reduction psychopaths running the show and us, the sheeple / minions / unwashed or whatever term you find more appropriate.
To quote Catherine Austin Fitts “They can take me out if they want to, but I’m not going there”. That’s our girl!
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
Upton Sinclair (1934)
Trump is absolutely right again!
Disability is the new gold standard?
Anyone that challenges the status quo is right for the job Mish. It’s laughable that you know the measles vaccine has saved millions of lives. You like me are way out of your league here. All mandatory everything should be abolished for freedom to rein.
MAHA is quite possibly the first serious attempt to take on the pharmaceutical industry in quite some time. https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-dam-is-breaking-were-making-america
Mish,
RFK has not attacked the measles vaccine or any others. The vaccine is not perfect. The public has the right to be informed of its risks. The narrative is so far to one side it’s easy to view centered information as extreme.
“Measles, smallpox, and polio vaccines have saved millions of lives”. Yes. And they have harmed 10s of thousands.
“It is foolish to be on a total anti-vax campaign.” He is on an informed consent campaign.
We the public have been and are continuing to be lied to by the corporate pharmacy industry. “It’s safe” is all we are told repeatedly. VAERS and VICP are two large sources of data showing safety is not 100%.
To inject people against their will is about as anti-freedom as possible. Lying about the vaccines safety and threatening people’s jobs/livelihoods is strong coercion.
Pro choice and informed consent is not anti-vax.
I have links to pier revied studies with placebo and control groups if you want to see the risks the “scientific consensus” is overlooking.
I am not talking about mNRA vaccines.
I an talking about measles, small pox, polio, etc. there is no more debate about these than there is debate the earth is only 6,000 years old (which happens anyway)
It’s idiocy.
Tonsillectomies quadrupled paralytic bulbar polio cases. One study mentioned is from 1938 so they have known about this risk for a long time. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1620872/?page=1
Up by New Trier they never miss a trick –
https://newtriernews.org/news/2018/05/11/testing-accommodations-four-times-national-average/
Check the autism spectrum and see how wide the spectrum can go. If anyone fits into the spectrum they could call it autism. I’ve seen some who cannot function, some mildly functional and some who might be quirky and I would never think were autistic. The latter could fall under Mish’s category.
Yep, over the target on this response.
We love ya Mish – autism ‘n all…
If this blog ever gets boring, you could maybe go on disability…. 😄
(Both Elon Musk and Jerry Seinfeld have autism…)
If only Mike cared as much about the abuse of our tax system by large corporations and billionaires… The financial impact on the abuse of our medical system is so small in comparison.
Autism diagnosis has increased because the process to diagnose has improved. We all remember kids that were a little off and couldn’t really cope. Instead of providing services to them, the poor kids were bullied.
Studies are showing that if autism is diagnosed early (by around age 2), and developmental assistance is provided during the ages of 2-6, the child has a much better chance of eventually being self sufficient. Let’s adhere to real studies instead of nutty conspiracies.
is it abuse of the tax systsem or is it the tax system? i think it’s the tax system. the loopholes are there in the legislation and regulation. fix those.
Medicare fraud alone is probably 5 Billion annually. Medicaid Fraud maybe less?
And now you can’t tell me that illegals are not getting medicaid because if they show up in a hospital they get treated so who do you think pays?
As Anthony below said its more of the tax system that is the problem
And I do not care if say IBM doesnt pay corporate income tax to the U.S. if they were hiring in the United states.
The problem is Congress with Wall St pressure let our companies export the jobs and also pay no corporate income tax
Didn’t you see the article from the Wall Street Journal opinion section though?!
Oh? The author? Just a paid political hack, that’s all! Very trustworthy.
Today, more students than ever are claiming ‘disabilities’…not the physical kind. By being designated as ‘disabled’ on school, you are afforded more time to take tests, etc. In some schools, 25-30% of kids are classified as disabled. They actively seek out this designation.
A more direct statement here is “ADHD is so over-diagnosed that it is compromising education” – I’m guessing your stats cited come from The Atlantic’s Accommodation Nation article? Written by a real greenhorn, BTW, 2023 BA.
There was article in the Atlantic about that. It’s behind a paywall, but there was a long excerpt on Slashdot.
https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/06/0812245/many-privileged-students-at-us-universities-are-getting-extra-time-on-tests-after-disability-diagnoses
Great catch on this Mike. And yes you were early or even the first on this pointing out this fraud. Kudos to you.
Is transgerder(ism) the new Autism ?
– RFK says Tylenol is behind the rise in autism. I never believed that theory. > I have always felt if that was truly the case, as big as the pharmaceutical/medicine lobby is, they cannot bury “Death & Continued Serious Illness” Can They? If that’s the case, then we are all done!!!
– For years, I have maintained the huge rise in the diagnoses of autism, ADHD, back pain, and other disabilities is fraud. > And for decades over decades, I agree and say your spot on! I do however know of 2 circumstances where people I know did go out on legitimate back pain issues (heavy labor), went to PT, did there due diligence and were done after a couple of Months (not a quick turn around unfortunately), so in an effort to give both sides of the situation a fare look, and that it can be a critical, and very painful set back for some, and even disable you.I would guesstimate at minimum 50% is fraudulent, but some could be Drug Related (hooked) or major setbacks, as is common with backs etc.
– The autism scam in Minnesota finally brings the issue to a head. > A very good reason to have things looked into, and if needed redo the entire set up, and add multiple layers of visits with multiple staff members, to be sure no one person can do so for example. I would add a layer of “Insurance Investigators” that just have a camera and lots of time and patience. Things like that would solve a lot of the issues of Fraud, and be very inexpensively done…
– Diagnosis rates of autism among children have more than tripled over the past 15 years. One reason, which Minnesota’s welfare scandal lays bare with shocking details, is Medicaid fraud and abuse. > We have proof, so it should be very easily backed and supported by 100% of Our Elected Officials, and If Not, then Vote these cheating, disgusting, pieces of Crap Out Of Office ASAP!!!
– Many lower-income kids are labeled autistic merely because they have behavioral or developmental problems.> I actually know of one, and it was my Son! He was 3-4 and had some behavioral issues, and it turned out to be a concentration issue, and as a result he would go off on daydreams or be stuck on something, and wanted to take as long as he could to get it right, and get a little upset, throw a tantrum sometimes, but it turned out to simply be his Frustration Level was sky high due to not getting it. It took some classes, and a tutor, and by 7 he was completely out of it. He does have a very curious mind…
> In Minnesota, it’s obviously Fraud IMO, but we shall see how good they hid it, how much, if any of it, will be clawed back etc.
– I feel vindicated. But I have been writing about this for years. You Mish Are Definitely Vindicated 100%!
Simple Solution:
*** If states had any incentive to stop disability fraud, we would not have so much of it. Make states responsible for a large portion of disability claims just as they are for welfare, and the number of people collecting disability will collapse.
Let’s get it DONE!!!
I’m 80, autism and genetic disabilities were rare in my youth. It seems that these disabilities came in with the drug generation of the late 60’s. It’s possible that recreational drugs did genetic damage that is passed from generation to generation. I know some ex-hippies of 60’s or 70’s vintage who are now the grandparents of disabled children and some with children with serious disabilities. Of course, I can’t prove a causal relationship, but genetic damage can skip a generation or be passed directly.
Many people think it is primarily our advances in science and medicine that have enabled us to see these things. Anyone who claims to have all the answers is certainly lying.
Something negative has happened to the gene pool since I was young. Lower IQ’s, obesity, illness etc. We aren’t a hardy, smart people like the folks who pioneered the country.
Encouraging resilience outrages the woke. They advocate for everyone to be as delicate as possible and will then insult anyone not supportive/(enabling) enough….
I have three siblings. All of us have 1 child with ADHD and we suspect my Dad’s Father had it. Seems to be a genetic link in there somewhere. ADHD is more then i can’t sit still. It involves the inability to control concentration. Not interested in the subject, then fall asleep in the middle of doing math problems, Interested in a subject, then laser like hyperfocus. Also involves a lack of impulse control which can lead to a lot of bad choices in teenagers and kids, which then results in behavioral problems. Most of us have the ability to stop and think and stop before going forward with a bad idea. ADHD kids and teens who are still developing do not. They are also terrible with time management and most importantly, they can not pick up on body language social cues. They miss all the signs that a parent is becoming frustrated with them, and then wonder why they just got scolded. Medication makes a world of difference. The only real test should be for the child to try the medication . Most people speed up with an amphetamine. ADHD kids slow down. It’s crazy.
Autism is a spectrum disorder, so there is a lot of wiggle room to fall on the spectrum. I fall on the spectrum, but am a functioning adult.
Would say the same about myself. When I read about common traits of people who are somewhat marginally on the spectrum, I find a lot of comfort in the similarities, and it has helped me understand myself better, interact with others better, and helped those around me be more patient with me when that patience benefits my mindset.
Sure I could go on functioning just fine without this knowledge. However, knowing this info now has helped me become a better person. Who in their right mind would be against THIS? Healthcare fraud? Yes, let’s nail them all. But there’s plenty of legit diagnoses and discoveries that are all help and no hurt, like mine.
autism is a direct response to too many vaccines. to deny it is to be obtuse. the growing infant brain is bombarded with human made chemicals. what could go wrong?
Maybe, but recreational drugs are a better candidate.
No wonder a slang for cannabis is “dope”.
If only there was a reliable study showing causation between vaccines and autism. There is not so please, move off of the conspiracy.
Anyone who believes stuff like this and stays in mainstream society is a traitor to their morals and values. Why are you subjecting yourself to a society that is waging war on you and the sovereignty of your health?
I don’t know whether vaccines affect the odds of becoming autistic (as opposed to “causing” it). I’m certainly open to it and recognize the conflict of interest in any industry-produced studies. A small percentage of the population is ideologically opposed to all vaccines. A bigger percentage of the population is ideologically in favor of “vaccines” – which generally (to them); means all of them for all people at all times. The illogic of conflating the importance of vaccines against smallpox and polio with vaccines against Covid is mind-numbing. The infection fatality rate from smallpox and polio in the 19th century was one hundred times the population-wide IFR of Covid and the IFR of Covid was overwhelmingly age-stratified. Vaccinating an 83 year old against Covid made sense. Forcing college-bound kids to be vaccinated was ridiculous at best. Also, the Covid vaccines were novel technology with a far shorter period of testing than many prior vaccines. No one should be an automatically “pro-vaccine” or “anti-vaccine”.
Well said.
More and more dependency on the government, which all your Democrat followers want.
A nation of fraud seekers and free loaders, and Democrat and white liberal sh*tholes like Minnesota need to be put under the microscope.
yo accurately defined the current rethuglicans. especially the rhino trump and family grifter business.
Please tell me more about what I want, you clearly understand all Dems better than any of them understand themselves, oh wise one
You seem unfamiliar with Minnesota.
It’s actually quite red, outside of the Twin Cities.
He meant where the shitholes are, which are the democrat controlled liberal cities and for what 60 years now?
Fraud may be a reason, but so would be better diagnoses. Growing up I’ve known people who were clearly on the spectrum but weren’t diagnosed as such.
Also, the fact vaccines saves millions of lives doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t cause autism in and of themselves. For example, mercury was commonly used as a a preservative, so it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that exposing babies to heavy metals could damage their nervous system. Perhaps this was known to policy makers, but they decided the risk that this tiny risk is outweighed by the benefit.
its not a tiny risk its an abomination.
One suspects that to them, a 1 in 10K risk of autism outweighs a 1 in 1K risk of death or serious injury (these figures are just examples to illustrate the point)
Federal funding for Medicaid in 2024 was around $580 billion. Past years it was $40 billion in 1990, $110 billion in 2000, $200 billion in 2007, and $300 billion in 2014.
Federal funding for wars of choice was $873 billion in 2024.
A pal told me, unverified (I do not know the lady) that his neighbor has Medicaid and hides her Multi-Million Dollar inheritance in a blind trust.
My dog told me what you said is true
Meanwhile. What happens when you try to seek a Job with a disability as small as it is (short : studies says you are more likely to get a Job by hiding your disability thus making the diagnosis useless): https://www.reddit.com/r/AntiTaff/comments/1p15vpn/comment/npntwtt/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&tl=en
Textbook examples of Asperger’s Syndrome seem to be common in my family which points to a genetic component. None of us are on welfare unless you count farming.
30% of American voters now think you’re part of the Deep State
Interesting discussion….I think it is some of both. I’ve personally seen welfare families use their kids to game the system and had their kids take drugs for the “condition” which is heartbreaking because many of these drugs have strong and lasting side affects.
On the other side of the equation I take care of an autistic stepson and it was laborious to get his first benefits at 29 years old. I did have tons of documentation from the school system where he attended special ed which helped immensely with his disability case. It took 3 appeals and lawyering up to get it.
A lot of the homeless youth are young people like my stepson.
It would be interesting to see how many disabled children suddenly get better in their 20’s. The disability money for someone that is a prime working age wage earner is half of minimum wage in California so there is a huge incentive to get real work.
I also have known plenty of folks in cash pay industries like construction that understated their income to get benefits they otherwise wouldn’t qualify for. 1099’s stopped a lot of that.
I personally know a lot of autistic people that are truly disabled. That could work potentially but only if motivated by the types of methods typically used with slavery.
Maybe MN will lose all medicaid dollars and no more fraud
Trade MN for AB.
Free money may not be on the ballot if there a debt event. The world has had if with the US and is embracing China and its leadership on currencies.
Here’s the opposite view: if you collapse the system, prices will crash. Collapse insurance companies and the medical system. There will be layoffs and restructuring. This is healthy. Healthcare spending is not a net productive thing. It gets people who were once healthy back fo being healthy. It keeps people alive that may not have any business being alive.
Not to discredit your thesis, but if you ask at random any 10 sets of parents of actual autistic kids, 6-8 of them will tell you the autism commenced right after a battery of vaccines.
There’s simply tons of evidence to this effect, and that “Measles, smallpox, and polio vaccines have saved millions of lives” is indeed the narrative we’ve been fed with for a 100 years or whenever the stuff was introduced, but is highly contested unless you are part of the system and your living depends on it. Several hundreds of vax critical books tell a different story. A new one appearing almost each week, many written by MDs who cannot bear staying silent any more
.
But everyone is entitled to his own opinion of course.
A really great piece I read in the beginning of the global CV crime by the Canadian Julius Ruechel. A couple of things he is wrong on (such as the effectiveness of some vaccines) but a fascinating read all the same and great references at the end.
The Snake-Oil Salesmen and the COVID-Zero Con: A Classic Bait-And-Switch for a Lifetime of Booster Shots (Immunity as a Service)https://www.juliusruechel.com/2021/09/the-snake-oil-salesmen-and-covid-zero.html
Approximately 5.4% of pregnant women report using drugs. Autism affects 2.3% of children. Sure, blame the vaccines.
Do you think epidemiologists cannot suss out any correlation between children born to drug-using women and autism?
Got any data that supports this? Or is inference enough data for you? BTW, you may be right. I want to see proof. Especially after the last 5 years of this medical bs.
There are studies that correlate drub use during pregnancy with autism. Not the operating word, correlate.
No question. I believe that. Now do the numbers match what we’re seeing or are there are other factors?
Even my vet doesn’t give multiple vaccines to my dog. Her concern is bad/unpredictable reactions. Shocker, huh?
The saying in the halls of congress is “Debt has no constituents”
I attended a couple presentations by Barbara Lowe Fisher of NVIC some years ago. To settle on just one point to keep this brief, there used to be two polio vaccines in use in the USA. One was removed, she was instrumental in proving it was causing more polio than it prevented. That the medical industrial complex did not figure this out gives an indication of the level of evil involved.
They did figure it out eventually.
We should be thankful that they were able to arrest polio.
In any case, the NVIC (National Vaccine Information Center) is a superb and uncorrupted source. Check out the 2020 International Public Conference on Vaccination for some eye-openers for example. If you still happen to believe in the system until now you certainly won’t after having watched some of the presentations. Bobby K Jr one of the speakers. His broken voice is a flu vax injury! That’s why he won’t take another one in a million years, god bless the good man.
https://www.protectinghealthandautonomyinthe21stcentury.com/
Medical conditions firstly become more popular once they attract subsidies and then secondly an industry grows up to exploit the patients and the payee and boost the sales pitch for the need for more money. So the basic premise is correct.
Though with Autism I’d say a lot of lads are on the spectrum, the more moderate characteristics are very common. 40 years ago it wasn’t recognised, it wasn’t a condition, they were just ‘spaso’s or an awkward lad that needed bullying.
Which is not to rule out that the fumes from cars, exposure to household chemicals, food additives and microplastics hasn’t caused an actual increase. All those exposures can’t have made people healthier.
If one depends on what RFK and minions recommend, they deserve the outcome.
To the extent possible, one should always assess recommendations with care – including those from RFK and Tony Fauci. Remdesivir was a profit-making joint venture between Gilead Sciences and the NIH.
I am sure one discussion on vaccines that could be a health issue is the administration of multiple vaccines at once to a new born. As a health care provider having four children who received vaccines pre the new CDC recommendation, i could not understand approving the assault to a new born with multiple vaccines and injections. I believe senator Kennedy was addressing this issue, I think.
As a nurse practitioner I was not convinced the Covid vaccine, was necessary for everyone. Especially, evidence showing children had no problems recovering under their own immunity from contracting the virus. Yet, mandatory went above science.
Lot of money for Pfizer and Moderna. They had to pooh pooh repurposing any existing medicines to maintain their emergency use authorization. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in September 2021 testimony before the senate admitted under questioning by Rand Paul that natural immunity from having recovered from Covid was as good as immunity from vaccination, but that they were still mandating immunization (at pain of losing your job) because it was easier and simpler on the government than tracking various state records to determine who had already recovered from Covid.
Of course, you’re right that the risk to children (aside from those with leukemia on immunosuppressive chemo) was insignificant. Fewer children died from Covid than from the flu and even those were mostly immunocompromised cancer patients. There was too much money involved to let immunization be risk-stratified, though.
It seemed like there wasn’t enough time also.
Covid was a moving train, mutating constantly, into nobody knew what.
This is my point as well. We do not give malaria vaccines unless traveling to places where it is a risk, which makes sense. So why did we give kid$ covid shot$ when their risk came awfully close to zero?
Child sacrifice – simple answer.
Not many will approve of this reply but that’s where we are. Not me saying this but Rabbi “Zev” Zelenko, successfully treated thousands including heads of state, R.I.P.
Nowhere in the constitution is the federal government given authority to provide healthcare, health insurance or anything to do with disability, just like education. Potentially the two most degenerated services in the US are healthcare and education. Both need to be returned to the states in their entirety where they belong as well as their funding.
Citizens need to get away from the idea that the federal government is in place to take care of them, nothing could be further from the basis of our constitution, and the cost is bankrupting the country.
Giant Hat Tip to You Mr. smith!! Very well said, and you’re in very large and good company!!
The Unions have Destroyed Education IMHO!
Were you born yesterday? The Constitution has become dead letter in the US over a century and a half ago.
Well, I was born at night but not last night. I am an optimist that firmly believes if our country returned to its constitutional foundation and to fiscal sanity of spending no more than revenue, we would prosper. I also believe the return would be very swift, just as it was following return to fiscal sanity right before the roaring twenties. Virtually no one discusses that example probably because it worked well and the process would undermine the control and power of many in high places.
That’s not what the Constitution is meant to achieve. As a matter of fact, even between the end of the Revolutionary War and the beginning of the Civil War were the US prosperous. In other words, the Constitution is not the magic wand that you think it is. I’d like to see the republic to return to its Constitution, but prosperity is outside its scope.
The part about prosperity was related to spending less than revenue, just like the Roaring Twenties example.
Well said
The problem is that is 70% of the Democratic base that think the federal government will help and cure everything.
And now that is on a global scale, just send your so called migrants from around the world here and the U.S Fed government will take care of them.
And that is the biggest reason you have Trump 2.0 so I just SMO and laugh at all the Trump complaining as if what went on for 4 years of the Biden Admin wasn’t just as bad for our country, or worse. But hardly mentioned by many here.
I am not sure about the 70% number, could not find a source with it. Under Biden an extreme effort was made to transport illegals all over the country and much of the current chatter about ICE enforcement work has its location in northern portions of the country.
Nice job pointing out the rampant and abundant WFA in all those blue states and locales.
I’m certain that Tampon Tim had zero idea his state was so prolific.
Becoming a father over 40 increases the odds of an autistic child SIX times. Becoming a mother over 40 increases the same odds by 50%. In the last couple of decades, people have postponed marriage and childbearing due to increased cost of living and self-centeredness. In the same period, autism has exploded.
Increased autism or the diagnosis of it? It could be some of each.
Regardless, much more likely that Tylenol or vaccines
As I child in the previous century, I had never heard of autism. I guess that it didn’t exist then. Those whom doctors now call autistic or in a grade of it, then we were called retarded or something like that. Could it be that the rise of autism is a mere change in semantics, with a consequential fall in the cases of retardation?
Yes, that is possible. Where’s the evidence?
Having an autistic son, an autistic father, an autistic brother, and being autistic myself, I’ve had to become educated on this topic. (Yes, there’s a genetic component to autism, just in case that wasn’t obvious.)
It would be good if Mish did the same before writing this. Is fraud part of it? Bless your heart, of course it is. Fraud is a component in nearly every human social interaction. A change in the diagnostic criteria over the past 50 years, increasing awareness of it as a complex assortment of disorders and symptoms, and increasing availability of resources to deal with it are all far more likely to account for the growth in diagnoses. (And as one person correctly noted earlier, increasing parental age.)
This was poorly done.
BT. What is your opinion of this meta analysis on the relationship of autism and Tylenol?
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12940-025-01208-0
My father was 62, my mother was 39. So I guess I’m autistic. Probably not though, since 81 years ago who had ever even heard of autism? It was so long ago that it, in many cases, it wasn’t even known what people actually died from. “Old age” was one. Or “consumption”. Heart disease from a bad diet and cancer were still the main killers.
not once, but twice fathered at 50+. Investigate new vaccine schedules per CDC.