The most elegant heist in modern American historyโand almost no one in Congress can explain it.
Letโs dissect this scheme the way youโd dissect any imperial fraud:
With facts, flow, and a little fire.
A Thread...๐งต
Imagine a 17th-century monarchy so broke it begins taxing its own nobilityโฆ
Only to send the money back with royal interest, using a fake charity as cover.
Thatโs SHOPP. Supplemental Hospital Offset Payment Program
A fake tax, a fake payment, and real federal cash. 1/
Bookmark this.
You wonโt hear it in committee hearings.
This isnโt good policy or reform.
Itโs racket wrapped in a series of lies.
And the people profiting?
Theyโre not on your side.
The virtue-signalers.
The academic frauds.
The bipartisan swamp.
They all eat while patients wait.
Follow @DutchRojas if youโre done playing dumb.
This thread is your permission to stop pretending.
2/
โขHealth Systems โdonateโ money to the state (this is the โtaxโ)
โขThe state labels it as a Medicaid provider payment
โขThat triggers a federal match (up to 2:1 or more)
โขThe state sends the bloated payment right back to the same hospitals
โขThe hospitals get more than they gave
โขThe state keeps the spread
But 49 out of 50 U.S. Senators couldnโt explain what SHOPP even is.
Most donโt know it exists.
The rest are funded by the same health systems that profit from it.
Weโre not witnessing ignorance.
Weโre witnessing institutional capture.
4/
Letโs talk scale:
โขOklahoma SHOPP = $1.4B
โขTexas variant = $5B+
โขCaliforniaโs Medicaid tax loop = $9B+
โขFlorida, New York, Illinois = similar stories
In total, tens of billions in synthetic Medicaid spendingโrecycled through state books to unlock a federal ATM.
Yes, Taxpayers are paying 2x for the same.
Once via State income tax and again Federal tax.
5/
And where does it go?
Not to patients.
Not to outcomes.
Not to rural physicians.
It goes to:
โขLobbyists
โขBondholders
โขConstruction projects
โขExecutive bonuses
โขAnd โnonprofitโ systems that behave like sovereign hedge funds
6/
And whoโs left out?
โขIndependent physicians: no facility, no bonus
โขClinics and ASCs: blocked by policy
โขPatients: fewer options, longer waits
โขTaxpayers: footing the bill for corporate welfare
This isnโt a public health program.
Itโs a capital market subsidized by the federal government, cleverly disguised as Medicaid.
7/
This is not accidental. Itโs engineered.
Medicaid is now the largest source of bonus cash for U.S. health systems.
But only if you play the game at scale.
If youโre small, ethical, or independent?
You get scraps.
Thatโs not a market.
Thatโs a protection racket.
This is how empires collapse.
Not from war.
From internal theft disguised as benevolence.
RT this thread.
Tag a Senator.
Ask them what SHOPP is.
Watch them fumble.
@DutchRojas
โข โข โข
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On paper, Senator Rand Paul appears to be a free market ally: libertarian credentials, medical degree, vocal opposition to government overreach.
But when it comes to healthcare, where the most egregious examples of regulatory capture, price distortion, and monopolistic abuse reside, Paulโs record is, at best, indifferent.
At worst, it enables the very cartel behavior he claims to oppose.
This thread ๐งตoutlines the facts.
Not the slogans.
Not the soundbites.
Just the receipts.
@RandPaul
The Myth of the Free Market Champion
Rand Paul brands himself as a crusader for individual liberty.
Heโs built a national platform by opposing vaccine mandates, criticizing the NIH, and warning against federal overreach.
But behind the curtain, in the committee rooms where policy is shaped, Paul has consistently refused to engage on the actual market failures in American healthcare:
He has never led the charge to repeal the moratorium on physician-owned hospitals, despite being one of the only physicians in the Senate.
He has taken no action to champion site-neutral payments, the single most bipartisan policy lever to reduce price disparities and level the playing field between independent physicians and hospital-owned monopolies.
He has offered no support to repeal Certificate of Need laws in Kentucky despite Kentucky being one of the most CON-heavy states in the country.
He has not fought to expose 340B abuses, GME manipulation, or the way nonprofit health systems weaponize tax exemptions to crush competitors and consolidate power.
2/
The Physician Paradox
Letโs not forget: Rand Paul is an ophthalmologist. Heโs one of the few people in Congress who knows what itโs like to run a practice, see patients, and deal with the bureaucratic chokehold of modern medicine.
That makes his absence on pro-physician, pro-market healthcare reform not just disappointing, itโs indefensible.
While physician-owned practices across the country are being swallowed by health systems backed by tax-free debt and nonprofit status advantages, Senator Paul is silent.
While independent physicians face predatory payer behavior and unjustified reimbursement cuts, heโs focused on Fauciโs emails.
3/
But ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ต๐ข๐น-๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐จ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ:
โข Sky-high prices
โข Billions in real estate
โข $2M+ executive payouts
โข And some of the stingiest charity care in California. 2/
Translation:
The house bet on sick patients not being too sick.
The house lost.
Actuaries are re-running the numbersโand sweating.
But don't worry, there are some "influencers" on X on LinkedIn who know better.
Go ahead and buy the dip.
You said you were going to 3 weeks ago...
As usual, they were just talking
And they were wrong 3 weeks ago, and they are wrong today.
#MedicareAdvantage
#InsuranceMath
2/
Reason 2:
Leadership chaos.
๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ง๐ต๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐๐ผ๐ปโ๐๐๐ข ๐ผ๐ณ ๐จ๐ป๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ต๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒโ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐บ๐๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ต.
Yes, murdered.
The media went dark.
Wall Street went quiet.
But insiders are whispering: โThis isnโt business as usual.โ