In the latest episode of Buyers & Company aired on January 29, 2025, host Dave Anthony dives deep into critical social and political issues affecting the community and discusses notable events shaping the national landscape. Here are the primary topics covered:
Human Trafficking Awareness
- Formation of Research Lab: Dr. Laura Dean explains the establishment of the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin University, aimed at integrating student researchers into local human trafficking issues. The focus is on understanding and addressing trafficking within Central Illinois, considering the rise in cases during and post-pandemic, particularly within vulnerable populations like LGBTQ individuals.
- Understanding Trafficking: The conversation highlights that trafficking involves force, fraud, and coercion and manifests in various forms, including labor exploitation in nail salons and agricultural settings. Awareness surrounding these issues is crucial, as many victims remain hidden in everyday environments.
- Community Impact: Tanya Andrews emphasizes the importance of understanding trafficking as a local crisis that necessitates community involvement and education. The episode underscores that a significant portion of trafficking victims come from ordinary settings, drawing attention to the need for vigilance and awareness.
Medicaid and Healthcare
- Role of Medicaid: The discussion transitions into Medicaid's important role in providing health services to low-income groups. The episode highlights that Medicaid covers a significant percentage of hospital admissions and serves many vulnerable populations, including children and seniors in Illinois.
- State vs. Federal Funding: The show addresses complexities surrounding federal versus state funding. With narratives on recent decisions by the Biden administration regarding Venezuelan migrants and potential cuts to federal programs, Thornton discusses ongoing debates around Medicaid and the implications for state healthcare systems.
- Challenges in Access: The constraints of healthcare access in rural areas versus metropolitan settings are highlighted, illustrating how different populations depend heavily on Medicaid services and how these services impact lives and communities.
Political Dynamics and Community Leadership
- Evolving Leadership: The episode discusses the changing political landscape, particularly in Central Illinois, noting new leadership and initiatives aiming to address various community needs, particularly in education and healthcare.
- Community Engagement: Listeners are encouraged to get involved in local initiatives. There are public planning sessions for community feedback on school district policies and programs, emphasizing that every voice matters.
- Call for Proactive Discussion: The host encourages an open dialogue on the political decisions affecting public services, urging listeners to remain engaged and informed, especially regarding their local representatives.
Practical Takeaways
- Attend Community Events: It’s crucial for citizens to participate in upcoming meetings about community programs and public health initiatives.
- Support Awareness Campaigns: Sharing knowledge about human trafficking and Medicaid services can help combat stigma and inform others of available resources.
- Advocacy and Involvement: Engaging with elected officials, discussing concerns, and advocating for the necessary changes in policy are vital steps every citizen can take.
Conclusion
This episode of Byers & Company serves as a pivotal reminder of the social issues affecting local communities, including human trafficking awareness and the importance of healthcare services like Medicaid. The conversations encourage proactive community engagement, with practical implications for listeners.
As these issues intertwine with larger political themes, the emphasis remains on collective effort and understanding to foster a compassionate and informed society.
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How to save a life spent 58 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the unofficial theme song for Grey's Anatomy. For more stories, podcasts, and videos, visit our website anytime, you can find us at nowdecatur.com. I'm doing something else the Biden administration did.
I'm Dave Anthony, Fox News and the Voice for Mass Deportations. The people of this country want these dirtbags out. They want their communities to be safe. Homeland Security Secretary Kristina, I'm just told Vox that she today revoked a temporary status for Venezuelan migrants here illegally. They were going to be able to stay here.
and violate our laws for another 18 months, and we stopped that. Secretary Gnome took part in raids yesterday in New York City. Among the ones nationwide that arrested nearly 1,000 more illegal immigrants charged with crimes, more than 800 others ordered detained. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Goes to the Senate next hour for the first of two days of confirmation hearings as Health and Human Services nominee. Republican Senator Roger Marshall supports Kennedy telling Fox. America is not very healthy right now.
40% of Americans have a chronic disease. Our children, 20% of them are on some type of prescription drug. Kennedy plans to stay in his opening statement. He's not anti-vaccine or anti-industry. He's pro-safety, but his cousin Caroline Kennedy calls RFK junior a predator. Bobby is addicted to attention and power. She posted that on social media after writing a letter to senators, warning them about... His constant denigration of our healthcare system and the conspiratorial half-truth, he's told.
about vaccines. President Trump wants to reduce the federal workforce offering buyouts to those who don't want to return to offices. The new Trump team thinks they could save 100 billion taxpayer dollars because they think that many people, that many federal government employees are going to reply to an email they got last night.
with the word resign. Fox's Peter Ducey, the White House. Those are resigned by next Thursday would be paid through September 30th. The president's also writing a new executive order today that would cut federal funding to schools that teach radical gender ideology or critical race theory. A new national assessment of educational progress shows fourth graders scored a little better at math and test last year compared to 2022, but a little worse in reading for eighth grade math scores were unchanged. But reading comprehension got worse. A third of them failed to read it even a basic level that's more than ever.
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comes after his attempt to review federal spending and put a hold on it was blocking court. White House press Secretary Caroline Webitz said at her Tuesday briefing that every day Americans who receive direct assistance from the federal government, you will not be impacted by this federal freeze.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said as of Tuesday, the Commonwealth tried to draw almost $40 million from Medicaid and haven't received the payment yet. California AG Rob Bonta says it could affect FEMA funding to fight wildfires. We need it. We need it now. We needed it yesterday. The AG's filing followed a federal judge's block of the funding freeze sought by a lawsuit from nonprofits and small businesses.
in the U. S. We're going to talk about it. Good all Scott Fox News. The Trump Middle East envoy is in Israel today. Steve Whitcoff was part of the talks that ultimately led to that ceasefire agreement in Gaza between of Israel and a Moss and Whitcoff is there for more talks today on the next phase of that deal tomorrow. Three more hostages. Hamas keeps holding in Gaza will be released
rather next week, the president will host Israel's Prime Minister. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to be the first foreign leader to visit President Trump in his second term. The president has invited the Prime Minister to the White House on February 4th. The visit comes as a ceasefire in hostage release. Still in Gaza remains in place between Israel and Hamas talks to reach an agreement on a second phase begin Monday. Israel is the largest recipient of US military aid.
and President Trump last week lifted a hold on 2,000-pound bombs that was put in place by the Biden administration at the White House, Jared Halpern, Fox News. On Wall Street, stock futures down a little ahead of the opening bell later this hour. I'm Dave Anthony, and this is Fox News. January is National Blood Donor Month, a time to make a life-saving impact. Your donation can be the difference between life and loss for those in need.
Our Impact Life invites you to start the year by giving the gift of life, find a local blood drive today. Visit BloodCenter.org to locate a drive near you and learn how you can receive a gift card or donate funds for local food banks by giving blood with Impact Life. Together, we can save lives this January and beyond. Visit BloodCenter.org.
Here's a look at your WSOY three day weather forecast today sunny with a high near 46 tonight. Mostly clear low around 29 for Thursday rain likely afternoon increasing clouds and high of 46 and Friday rain likely mainly before noon mostly cloudy and high near 48. Current temperature in downtown Decatur 34 degrees. Your WSOY time is 806.
Good morning and welcome to the eight o'clock hour of Buyers in company. We've got a couple of great subjects we're going to talk about here today. Milliken University is in the house and we'll be visiting with Tanya Andrews from Crossing Healthcare. Get a little thought about yesterday and a little conversation about Medicaid and exactly what it is next. Buyers and company W. S. O. Y. 13 40 a. M. 103. 3 FM.
Grateful for the sunshine today. Makes a difference. It really does. Every Wednesday, we spend some time with our friends at Milliken University. You can look out our window. It's better view in the fall when all the leaves are orange and red. You can look right down and you can see Milliken University straight down the street here. It's been such a big part of this community for so many decades. And they've got so many things going on campus-wise.
We're going to be very specific about that today, but stuff they invite you to, whether it's to celebrate the anniversary of the championship women's basketball team or whether we're talking about sports or academics or human trafficking. There's a huge range. And so every Wednesday, it's a great deal of pleasure of ours to welcome guests in the studios. Dr. Laura Dean is back with us. Has it been a year?
I don't think so. I feel like you were here for something. I was here for Kinzinger. I don't think so. When Congress people come on campus, apparently I have. Are you the person? Apparently, even though I don't study the U.S., but yeah. Well, we're living in interesting times. Maybe there's crossover we can talk about. So, yeah, you were just here not all that long ago. But the human trafficking research lab, and if you're in academics, you will immediately shorten that to the HTRL.
has been around since 2018. So let's go back and brief me through that before we specifically talk about the event and introduce one of your students. How did it, how did it form? Why? Why does it exist? Yeah, so I normally study human trafficking in other countries. And so I kind of wanted a way to integrate students into my research. And I wanted to focus on the issue locally because we know that human trafficking happens here. So when I moved to Central Illinois,
I joined the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force, which was kind of just getting started. And it's a task force of police, victim service agencies, lots of different entities, judges, lawyers, things like that, prosecutors. And so they investigate and kind of look at the trafficking on the local level. And so I thought, wow, there's a lot happening here. And I think my students and I could get involved. So I established the research lab to be able to integrate students and my research and do local research on trafficking.
Okay, and has that local research changed? Has it remained consistent? I mean, you know, from 2018 to now 2025. Yeah, I mean, the pandemic was an interesting because we definitely saw a lull in victims and survivors coming forward because of the pandemic. And then after that, especially with economic vulnerabilities, we've seen an increase. We've also seen an increase over the past couple of years with the LGBTQ population.
in central Illinois. So we're seeing increased awareness to that group of individuals. And so we've actually seen a lot more people coming forward that are victims and survivors of trafficking. OK, define trafficking for me once again. I know we've had this conversation a lot, but I think it's important. You guys are experts and study this.
Yes, people just kind of get sensational headlines and they don't get any further than that. Yeah, so trafficking is kind of a modern form of slavery that looks at kind of force fraud and coercion. So it forces people into forced labor or sexual exploitation. And that can manifest itself in a number of different ways in our region. We see a lot of farm labor trafficking. We see it in hotels with people cleaning hotel rooms.
We've had cases in the region with nail salons, with forced labor. People are forced to work in nail salons, massage parlors, et cetera. What's the most surprising thing to you here in Central Illinois?
I mean, honestly, the nail salons are very surprising. So we've had there have been a bunch of bus in Springfield about it. And so that was kind of surprising to walk me through how that like you made a specific example of how that works. Yeah. So basically you go and get a manicure. And I think many people don't realize that, you know, the people giving you the manicure could be someone that's trafficked. And so
like I always talk to my students about like when you give them a tip, do they keep it? Do they give it to someone else? Are they allowed to talk to you? Things like that. So yeah, so there have been bus, not just in central Illinois, but also around the country of these nail. So I'm assuming it's not all nail salons, right? But that's just a category that one might not think about.
and might be participating in without any knowledge. Yeah. And I think, you know, as a woman, I think it's a popular thing that women do to kind of relax and things like that. And then you go and think that, you know, that could be human. The people could be in a trafficking situation. OK, so give me an example of how that. I mean, I know the nail salon and I get the nail tack, but how what leads up to that? How does that person end up there?
So people are often given fraudulent job offers. They'll be told, hey, you can go and work in a nail salon in the United States, et cetera. They'll enter the country. And then many times the immigration status. And if they come in legally, if they come in as a tourist, things like that, those things will be used against them and be used to keep them in a trafficking situation. And then they're forced to work long hours with little to no pay.
and they aren't allowed to leave. And is this a coordinated thing? Meaning, how does somebody end up in one country, then in our country, and then in that specific business? Yeah, I mean, it's an aspect of transnational crime. So there are people, there are recruiters in source countries, and there are people that transit them through transit countries, and then we are in, we are a destination country. So there's a network? Oh, yeah.
Yeah, and sometimes, actually, it's a mom-and-pop place, so it's people's relatives that are out there recruiting people in villages and things like that. But also, don't forget that this happens to Americans too, especially sex trafficking. Sex trafficking is very prevalent, and sex trafficking manifests itself
Many times people who are trafficked into sex trafficking as Americans often know they're the trafficker and know the perpetrator. Okay. Thank you for that. I think we all need a refresher occasionally. Well, we like to go beyond the headlines here. You know, everybody can do something really fast and flashy, but people need to know the depth and the substance. And I think it's also something that probably a lot of people would just be completely unaware of or not even think about.
So next time you're in one of these situations, be, you know, sort of mindful. All right. Akila McNeil, a senior political science major and a minor in criminal justice. Good morning. How are you?
I would turn her up just a little bit, Nick. You're from Chicago? Yes, I am. All right. How did you end up at Milliken University? My sister used to go here, and when I was applying for school, she just kept telling me, Milliken, go to Milliken, go to Milliken. I just told her, I don't care. Just do it. First-hander, you know, that's good. You get your students out recruiting for you. Yeah. All above board. And she's here of her own free will, clearly. Let me just ask you, what do you want to do in life? Your political science major with a minor
criminal justice. What do you want to do? So I really care about restorative justice and just helping my community. So what I want to do is go to law school in twenty six, but I also want to open up multiple programs for juveniles and adults in prison to have other options other than going into prison.
So I want to be able to go in there and give them life lessons on taxes, life lessons on how to get a job or whatever they want to do. I just want to be able to provide for them so they don't have to keep ending up in jail. And did you know that you wanted to do this at a young age? I mean, is something you've had a calling for or is it later in life? I mean, how did you arrive at this point? So I would say middle school. So when I studied the Constitution, I knew I wanted to go into like law and stuff and learn about politics and all that other
Well, there's certainly an interesting time to be studying for sure. Well, welcome. We're glad you're here with this, and I hope you go out and do good in the world. We need more of that. And I've often thought the way I try to sell this to people, because some people just don't care. Would you rather have productive citizens that are adding to life, or would you rather just keep cycling people through things that
you know, incarceration, whatever it might be. I mean, we need more people working to get people back into life than just locking people up. And it's an honorable thing to chase. And so please do well in that we need more of it.
You guys have a panel every year, right? Yeah. Who's invited to this panel? So everyone can come to the panel. So it's not just something for law enforcement or people in and around the equation. No, so this is our eighth annual, which is great. We've been doing this for eight years. I'm really fortunate that we have people in the community here in central Illinois that are willing to come and speak about their expertise. And so every year I pick a different topic. So last year we featured survivors.
This year, we are featuring law enforcement. And when I chose the topic in November, I didn't really think that law enforcement issues surrounding trafficking would be so appropriate. But here we are. So I think it's going to be a really interesting discussion. We have people from Homeland Security, people, a person from the FBI, and then our Illinois state police entity.
for investigating trafficking. And then we also have our local legal aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services. We have a supervising attorney who's going to give us kind of the victim survivor perspective on.
policing outcomes and developments and how they deal with them. All right. So you kind of buried the lead here. You got some very important people coming. Yeah, I know. I'm so thankful that they're always willing to come to Milliken every January. Thankfully, the weather today looks like it's cooperating with us. It's going to be great. You have the resident agent in charge for Homeland Security.
Yeah, you have the special agent in charge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation who's fairly new in that position in Springfield, right? Yeah, actually we found out yesterday he's sick, so we're getting the assistance specially in charge, but hey, I will take anyone from the FBI that I can get that's willing to talk over to their building in Springfield.
Yeah, we actually we've had entities from the FBI come visit us in the lab. So yeah, but I never been in their facility before and they had an FBI Citizens Academy that they do every year, which if you ever get a chance to participate, I would highly encourage you to do it. It's just fascinating, but it's such a majestic place. There's a lot of marble.
I mean, it feels like they just brought a little Washington DC to Springfield, Illinois. And then when we participate, you have to go through the fingerprinting process, which is kind of intimidating even if
And it's all electronic now. Oh, wow. So you don't end up with. No, there's no. It's just all scans. And they're sitting there watching you and you're like, Oh, wait, I was invited to my home. I think it's a lesson to me also realizing how people can feel around law enforcement, right? It's a very intimidating thing. And sometimes when people need help, that can become a barrier to that. You also have the vision of criminal investigation with the state police.
And then as you mentioned, the Legal Aid Society here as well. So this takes place six o'clock tonight. Yeah, six o'clock tonight. And we also have so growing strong is going to have a table. The Center for Prevention of Abuse will have a table. So we'll also have informational tables with kind of our victim service providers here in the region to be able to provide more information and support if people need it. OK, and then the panel discussion.
How does that work? I mean, I know what it is, but I mean, are there questions from the audience? Is it? Yeah, I keep telling my students come and ask them the hard questions. So yeah, so I mean, usually I do it where I prepare a couple of questions and send them to them ahead of time. This is kind of what I'm thinking. We're actually, I'm going to ask them about some research that we've done. So we found some interesting things that law enforcement, especially with trafficking, don't necessarily charge a trafficking offense. They'll charge for a lower level offense. And why is that?
So I'm going to ask them that. So I so TBD. I will let you know. I'm interested to find out the answer to that because we don't really know. We know that they do. We're just wondering that also be like at a state's attorney level. I mean, when charges are actually filed, right? I mean, arrest or made, but then charges are often decided by.
not law enforcement. Yeah, so then maybe next year I should invite states attorneys to have to be on my ninth annual thing. Yeah, I mean, and we have this whole new, you know, thing that's been misinterpreted a lot of different ways in Illinois of doing things in a different way, right? That is an interesting.
you know, I would be curious how they land on what particular charge they land on. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to ask them about it. So we'll see. I mean, they didn't tell me they didn't want to answer it. So I'm assuming it's an OK question. All right. You guys have been nominated for a Liberator Award.
Yeah. What is that? So it's exciting. Anti-trafficking advocates call it the Oscars of human trafficking, which is exciting. Basically, the Liberator was a newspaper that was started by William Lloyd Garrison during the abolitionist movement. So it was the first abolitionist newspaper.
on the soap project, which is an organization out of Ohio started these awards to be able to recognize anti trafficking advocates around the country. And yeah, we were nominated starting on February 1st. You'll actually be able to vote for us. So if you're interested in voting for the grader awards.com. Yep. Starting what? I guess it's Friday. Yeah. On the on the first, I think the first Sunday, the first through the 12th. Yeah. And then the finalists will actually get to go to Ohio to
the ceremony. So we will see. But yeah, I mean, it's like like the Oscars. It's an honor to be nominated. All right. There you go. Well, tonight, six o'clock, the people need to RSVP. Is there any charge? No, it's a free event open to the public. All are welcome to come and listen. Yeah, I mean, the only thing I always tell my students is, you know, we want you to come with open minds and respectful thoughts. OK. And tell me about your classmates and the people that you work with
committed to making a difference in the future? I wouldn't say that everyone's committed to making a change, but I definitely am.
For me, me and my classmates, we don't really, it's not that many political science majors people there. So it's really me and Dr. Dean and like a couple other classmates, but other than that. Pretty small group. Yeah, very small, very tight group. Yeah. What, how do you find campus life today? You know, being someone who's studying politics and it's a very interesting political time. You know, our kids engaged, disengaged, a little bit of everything. I mean, just not just your classmates in political science, but just students in general.
Um, I would say everyone is definitely engaged, especially with the person currently at office. They're definitely like paying attention and more focus on things because my friend who doesn't do know nothing of a politics. He researched stuff about policies yesterday.
about his financial aid, because he needed to know if he was getting his refund. Politics always hits home. And usually, like your friend, it's after bad news that they want to investigate. And my hope would be that every election year, regardless of its city council or president of the United States, people are informed and go to the polls.
and do their duty as citizens to vote. And we got too many apathetic people in this country that don't participate, or they don't think it impacts them until it does, like your friend yesterday, right? He got involved in a hurry. Immediately, fast as I've ever seen them do research in my life.
Let's hope that that aid is coming to him and he'll get paid. Are the conversations on campus about that? I know in public education, I did read yesterday that the funding had been allocated for this year. I mean, people worry about like.
the lunch program or you know that that stuff's okay because in june and july in public schools that was allocated but this fast for thing and if people are starting dates they're not in the normal traditional semesters there's a real chances could impact every yeah so we found out yesterday thankfully that it's not affecting student loans or Pell grants which are vital to higher education as of now yeah as of now thankfully um yeah and then the president's council i think is meeting today later today to kind of talk about
how we can respond to this. So, yeah, I mean, we're on, you know, we're having conversations about it on campus. And again, like you said, it shows politics is an important topic, right? It's important to stay on top of things and political developments. Yeah. And it's amazing how people just go, oh, well, until they're right in the.
in the headlights, and then it matters. So get involved. And it's not just Milliken. If you look at the University of Illinois, you look at all the research just done on campuses here in the state of Illinois. I mean, whether it's trying to cure AIDS or come up with the workforce innovations or whatever it might be, college campuses play a huge role in that. Thank you for what you do. Yeah, thanks for having me. Good luck tonight at six o'clock. It was very nice meeting you.
and good luck in your future. 6 p.m. You can go. It's a beautiful, if you haven't been to the commons, it is a gorgeous building and it still feels new to me because it opened during COVID. And so you had this weird timeline with everything, but you guys will be in the Baba Debbie Johnson banquet room upstairs, right? Yeah, third floor. It has a wonderful balcony. So yeah, come come out and experience and learn more about human trafficking during human trafficking awareness and prevention month.
All right. Six o'clock tonight. And good luck in the voting and the Liberator award. Thank you. All right. We'll take a break. Next got your three day forecast. Tanya Andrix from Crossing Healthcare coming up. We got a big conversation to have in and around Medicaid. Stay tuned. Today, it's going to be sunny with a high of 46 or a sunny right now.
Tonight mostly clear low around 29 for Thursday, rain afternoon, creasing clouds low and a high near 46. And Friday rain likely mainly before noon, mostly cloudy and high near 48. Current temperature in downtown De Gator, 34 degrees. Your WSOI time is 824. Growing your family, opening your own business, retiring to travel, leaving your legacy at
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Milliken University is investing in Illinois students with a big blue pledge Illinois free tuition program. The big blue pledge covers 100% of undergraduate tuition for qualifying Illinois residents by combining Milliken grants and scholarships with available state and federal aid. Milliken is committed to making a private education accessible and affordable for more students than ever before. Let Milliken show you how private education is within your reach. Learn more about the program at milliken.edu slash big blue pledge.
You're listening to Buyers & Company, streaming live at nowdicator.com. Is this Baker Street? That's right. Hey. Get myself the bell. All right, we are back here. I lived on Baker Drive when this song was literally a song called Baker Street.
a very nice. It's awesome. Young kid. But that's what I remember that. I don't think that guy had any other hits. Gurry. I'm sure it's Jerry. Yeah. There's always been the one hit wonders in the world. I appreciate it because, you know, there's some reason
Maybe not as an artist. They didn't have it like a giant career, but that one thing they did, you know, worked really well for everyone. It's okay. Yeah. He had another one that actually has more plays called right down the line. I don't even know what that is. Yeah. A hundred million more plays. Fair enough. Good job. Jerry. People accidentally have to listen to that. I'm telling you, I'm from that time.
So, wow, I don't even know where to start unpacking stuff. I want to start with 10 years, by the way, crossing health care in studios.
I want to talk about Medicaid, because I think it's something that isn't completely misunderstood by a lot of people. There are more rural people on Medicaid than there are inner city people. The numbers, I think that people have the stereotypes and everything else. It is so much larger, I think, than people think. There's so many children. But yet, I think when we do farm subsidies, people go, well, that's a smart investment.
But a child going to the dentist, I don't know why we separate these things as different categories. You're in a position where you serve a population that's very dependent on the grant money that we're talking about yesterday. In fact, 52 pages. This certainly isn't just Medicaid.
This is everything from meals on wheels to head start to farm subsidies to you name it, right? I mean, it's a gigantic list. There's a lot of confusion. Oh, no, that's not supposed to be on the list. Well, but it is on the list. No, that funding is going to go through. Well, not according to the questions that were posed over here. Judges said, hey, not doing anything until Monday, five o'clock. You need to clear this up. We're headed to court because this 1974 law about that seems to be precedent to me.
Once Congress passes a budget and a lots of those dollars, the president can't just take those dollars away. He can do whatever he wants in the next budget negotiation cycle, but this was done under another administration and Congress who holds the purse strings. I mean, we know how these different entities work, separation of powers and all of that. But I just want to start with Medicaid because I think it's one of those things where you can just throw it out there and people do their own stereotype in their head and they go, ah, get a job. Yeah.
Medicaid is to provide health coverage for low income individuals. It is a program that is administered at the state level with reimbursement from the federal level. So it is.
It is paid for in the state of Illinois with about half the money from the federal government and half the money from the state government. And it's based on contracts between the federal government and the individual states. Yes. And it's based on and it's put in our statewide budget. It's put obviously in the federal budget. And eligibility for Medicaid is based on the federal poverty limits and income. So it's an income based eligibility. And so
It's largely women and children who receive Medicaid benefits. And in the state of Illinois, it's important to understand that this is a big deal for hospitals. 24% of hospital admissions are paid for by Medicaid. So this impacts
you know, every health care provider and it impacts. You just happen to be the one in here on Wednesday after all. But yes, I reached out. Drew couldn't be with us this morning because this isn't just crossing. This is anybody treating patients. Correct. And so, you know, and it's largely health insurance, health care coverage, again, for low income individuals, largely women and children make up the majority of people who receive Medicaid benefits. I think it's important to know
that in the state of Illinois, 40 percent of newborns are born with coverage under Medicaid. And so if you think about when, you know, families are having children, it's in your earlier years, it's usually in your lower earning years. And so it affects a lot of new families, young families. And again, I think that it's important to understand
safety net health services. And you and I talk about, you know, whether you have a heart for, you know, people or not, this, it makes good business sense. The return on investment for proactive health care makes a lot of good sense. And that's what Medicare, Medicaid, excuse me, programming does again for low income. So and a lot of seniors.
A lot of seniors are duly eligible so they'll have Medicare and Medicaid together because of income. I'm just saying it impacts. It impacts many people. Okay. And that's with disabilities because that's the other population that's largely covered by Medicaid.
is the disabled population as well. So it's I just want to start with the basic. You guys know this. You live it every day. People in health care do. I think it's used and it's weaponized to get people to not care about these people because they're a category. So when I can put dollar amounts to it, so the federal poverty guidelines just came out for twenty twenty four and fifteen thousand dollars for one adult is the federal poverty limit Medicaid for a single adult
If you make 136 percent, so about $18,000 or less, you would qualify for Medicaid. So this is not, you know, a program. And for children, there is some degree of coverage for up to 300 percent of federal poverty guidelines. And again, that's tiered based on income. So it's a tiered cost program. And I think it's just important to understand
that a mother and a child making $20,000 is the federal poverty guideline. And so up to about $58,000 would be providing some degree of health coverage. And I think we all understand to support two people on that amount of money and pay health insurance premiums would be a challenge. And so they're able to purchase this or have coverage up to that level. All right. So here's some numbers that might surprise you.
Because you often see life only through the lens of where you live. And if you live in a city versus a small town, a rural state versus something where you get up northeast and you think of like Boston and places where there's a lot of people in smaller places, you go to Kansas and there's a lot fewer people. But overall, kids in small towns and rural communities, almost 41% receive coverage through Medicaid. In metropolitan areas, 38%.
of adults under age 65 in small towns and rural communities, 18% receive coverage through Medicaid and metropolitan areas for that same age group, 16%. In areas with large numbers of tribal residents, like you were American Indian or Alaskan native,
all of those ages are likely to be covered by the program. This doesn't look like one thing. You know, this looks like America. And by the numbers, there are higher percentage of people living in rural areas that are benefiting from Medicaid than there are in metropolitan areas. I think that myth would blowing away that would surprise most people. I think most people might be surprised by that. You're correct. That's known to us here. And I think it's also important to understand that
You know, in rural areas, it's often more important to have Medicaid coverage because when you're in rural areas, you have less access. It's harder to find things. It's harder to access health care. And so people in rural areas are often time dependent on any health care provider accepting Medicaid. And so it's just it's that much more important. And then how less expensive is it for everyone to be proactive in health?
then wait till you have catastrophic problems. This is what I don't understand. It's common sense, right? Well, it is, except it's not.
insurance is covering less and less of it. I mean, they're telling you, you know, these prescription drugs that you're on that keep you from having it. Well, you're going to have to pay more and more of that. Nothing that they're doing in this world makes any sense to me from just an investment. If you don't have heart, just the smart thing to do with money. And I will tell you that, you know, health care is broken right now. I am the first one to tell you that
The way health care is administered and provided in our country is broken because people aren't getting what they need. And no one is winning. The physicians, the providers, the hospitals, no one's really winning. It feels like the managed care companies or the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies are the only ones winning. That's what I see from where I sit in my vantage point. And so I understand the frustration
The answer is obviously not to remove needed health care from our most vulnerable population, the women and children of our country. That's not who we are. I hope that that's not the intention of the funding freeze yesterday and that with time we'll see some clarity. It's unfortunate. That was a tough day for a lot of people to watch that all unfold with really no answers. And we still don't have clarity.
around what the next, you know, weeks look like for funding for programs like this. It's also interesting how people perceive what a need is versus what a need is. I tell you grandma can't get meals on wheels and you go, I'm outraged. You know, I tell you that this could be farm subsidies and you go, well, they're, they're solid the earth and they provide our food. We built all this stuff into that.
And I think that's what's important to understand. Well, we'll see. The administration says they believe that 1974 law is unconstitutional. The other side will tell you that's exactly why that law was put into place to be in line with the Constitution. And this will be fought out in courts. But it does. This could be IFAB. This could be, you know, TCCI and Richland Community College, just as much as it is a Medicaid patient.
Yeah, it's hard and it's unfortunate. And I think right now, the most important thing and we're reassuring. We've had patients asking us today. And that's why we want to talk about this today because I know there's a lot of there's a lot of uncertainty out there where we're sharing patients that as we have information, if any services will be impacted, we will directly communicate to them. Obviously, it's our goal and our hope that we will receive clarification over the course of the next several days.
And, you know, we will proceed providing the services and being paid to do that. I think that, you know, right now we're leaning into our trade trade associations into our elected officials.
to garner clarity. And that's what we're seeking right now. What are you hearing from our elected officials? I know Congresswoman Budzinski sent out a press release yesterday. That's the only official communication that I saw from any of our elected outside the governor. I thought I was thinking more. Yeah. So I saw that press release and really that right now is what we're seeing. And I think it doesn't mean that people are not locked in. I think people are trying to get clarification so that when they put out information, they don't add to confusion.
And that clarification is just it's just coming continuously. So obviously the judgment or the judge's order to pause right now is where we're at. And so what we'll do is, you know, it's it's it's down to the logistics of how do you draw federal money and it's through a payment management system. It's making sure that that system is is online functioning. If you draw those dollars that those dollars actually get
put into your accountants, watching that process to see if that happens. And so I think anyone who's receiving federal dollars are in the process of watching what happens to know if in fact they will be impacted or not. Right. And let's also remember that federal dollars, those are our dollars. We have paid in. Yes. And the state of Illinois is a donor state.
meaning we send more money to Washington DC than we receive in return. And those are important facts. This isn't some trough of money that either party owns or any branch of the government owns. These are dollars that people of the state of Illinois have paid in. Here are the potential impacted programs. I can't even read these. The print is so small and there's 51 pages of microscopic
Great. Everyone knows someone who's would be impacted by this funding freeze as a recipient of services or as a provider of those services and that's jobs. You know, it's important to understand that a lot of people's jobs are in the sector that is supported by these types of firms. Including people doing cancer research.
It's just it's yesterday again, you know, the goal for our team and for most people who are on that list is to take a deep breath, seek factual information, and then proceed once we have factual information and respond, not react. It was a hard day to watch all of this unfold and to not have answers and to feel as though you owed employees and patients and everyone, you know, information that just isn't
available right now. So we're paying attention. We'll continue to do the work that we do. Crossing the small piece of this. You know, we serve 16,000 patients in the state of Illinois. There are 1.2 million patients who get care in a health center. And across the country, there's 34 million patients who get their care in a health center, just like crossing. And so we are we are deeply affected. And we have, you know, a lot of people advocating on our behalf to see
organizations like ours through times like this. Okay. So wait and see. That is exactly where we're at. And it's hard. I think clarity will come over the course of the next several days and then organizations like ours across this country will make metered and measured decisions based on the reality of their financial situation. The challenge is that most of the time when you're dealing with nonprofit organizations, they're nonprofit organizations. And so they
They operate with, you know, not a lot of cash reserves because if they had a lot of cash reserves, they wouldn't be not right. You know, you get the funding that your job is to put that funding into services. And so most of organizations, the challenge with this is that there's not a lot of time to have no clarity before you have to make really hard decisions that can impact services. And so if clarity is not received, you know, soon you will start to see
very organizations have to make tough decisions just because of that. And so I believe that we will get clear answers so that people can continue to do their good work. I have so many questions and I know that there are
different answers depending on different outcomes. And I mean, that's, you know, life as a whole. But the idea that this list of questions, you know, that was included in all of this. And then they said, no, well, that hasn't really, but yet it's in the memo, right? There was some, it felt to me like backtracking yesterday when everything, you know, I'm not sure they were all communicating, you know, fully and
And then you go through your head is like, okay, is this just, we don't think we can beat this in court, but we'll screw with people or we think we can beat this in court. And I don't know what the strategy is. We don't know. Exactly. But things are up and running. Things are running and people are getting their services. And that's across the board. Yes. Yes. And people think of it as just, I think, handouts and
It's just investments in people. And it's the same guy sitting at the University of Illinois coming up with the idea for what could be the biggest job creator in this region over the next 25 years that will pay back gazillions of dollars on an initial investment or cure cancer or whatever it might be. This is all in
the same group. Exactly. That has all been approved. I mean, no one gets the governor doesn't just get a decide. It has to go through Congress. It has to be voted on. It has to be signed into law. And then it's allocated. You're correct. And those promises have already been made. You're correct. That's what we're talking about. Yes. Not the next budget cycle. No. And you know, we have a continuing resolution, you know, that is funding our government right now through March. And so
that process will begin and we'll have a new budget and, you know, we'll adjust to whatever funding changes occur. And what we're talking about right now are funds that were already allocated. And also, by the way, not to point out, I shouldn't have to have the importance of it. These are also the people that inspect your meat and poultry and food to keep you healthy and alive are also in this.
It was a hard day yesterday. Yes, for a lot, thousands and thousands, millions of people. A lot of confusion. We're hoping for, again, clarity by the end of the week. All right, I've got to take a break. I'm late. My bad. Well, all right, Tay, this is all good. All right, we'll do that. We'll be back right after this. Stay tuned. Don't let tax season overwhelm you. Trust the experts at Mcatie accounting to handle all your tax preparation needs with accuracy and care.
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Hi JR from Speedloop here again reminding all of our clients how much we appreciate you and the services we provide that others may not. Here at Speedloop you have the choice to stay in your vehicle or wait in our lobby while we perform the service for you. Our full service includes a multi-point inspection that entails checking differential and transfer case fluids along with all the other vital fluids underneath the hood. We also vacuum the floorboards, wash the exterior windows and correct your tire inflation. All of this while providing a premium pins oil product. Thank you to
in surrounding areas for your 43 plus years of patronage. We look forward to seeing you again. 1055 WKIO, Pure Classic Rock, presents One Night of Queen, performed by Gary Mullen and the works. I am fine, it could be not straight in the street, gotta be a big bad son. April 1st at State Farm Center. One night of queen, April 1st at State Farm Center. Tickets at statefarmcenter.com.
The show does go on. You're listening to fires and companies streaming live and now Decatur.com. I was wrong. I do remember this. Yeah, this is a bigger hit. Would have been probably off the same album, same time, kind of frame, back in the day, you know, when radio wouldn't play two songs by an artist.
And he's got two big ones. We had kind of funny rules, not that I remember I was a kid, but yeah, they would have like stupid stuff like Tom Petty and Stevie Nix did a song for her album. And when that became a hit,
The Heartbreakers album that came out wasn't allowed because they weren't going to play two of the same thing. They're all kinds of weird rules. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. And Baker Street, if you listen to the full version, six minutes, five seconds. The radio at four minutes, eight seconds. They found a third to just lop off. You know what? I'm OK with that for that particular song. Give me a one-minute verse. That's right. Four minutes is played.
All right, Tanya Andrews is in studios with us here today. I would, the one thing I've learned in life that I am certain of and I have less certainty the older I get and I don't think of that as a negative. I think of it as a positive. I've convinced myself I will not be old and stuck in my ways. I'm not perfect at it and not 100%.
I am certain that life also goes on. And I know there's a lot of people out there who are really appreciative just the timing and how it worked out that you would be in here and be able to talk to us in a very common sense way about Medicaid and put a face to that and people to that because it's important.
And I know everyone's scared. I know everyone's all this. But you know what today the volunteers that are doing meals on wheels are going to deliver those meals to your grandma and the people who are operating Head Start programs or teaching in schools or the lunch program so the kids get a couple of meals a day regardless of where they're coming from.
and the food bank in rural, a blue mound or whatever will be operated today. And the good people of this country, you know, probably most don't live in the political realm most of their lives. And there's a downside to that because I think people need to pay more attention and make more educated choices. But that's just my opinion. Life will go on. Yep. And I think that's the right perspective. You know, you and I talk about that is that
you know, we wake up every day. The sun comes up. We're going to continue to do the work. And these are challenges and they're and they're rooted in again, policy disagreements that need to be worked out and we'll watch that unfold. And I'm the first to say that health care is broken. And so to think that it's sort of top on the list of things that we're going to look
Okay. I think that we don't remove care from the margin. Here's what I here's what's happened in the division of this country. We're not really looking for solutions. We're looking to dole out punishment. And I don't think that there's anyone would argue and you've worked with this that there needs to be reform. There needs to be more efficiency in how government runs. I don't think there would be anybody. I don't think there's anybody that would disagree.
If you've got people in this country illegally that have murdered people, we probably don't want them in our country. It's everything else that gets thrown out with the bath water that is where we can't have any nuance. Yeah. Thoughtful and intentional is where I'd like to see us. Yes. Thoughtful and intentional. Right. Yes. And I don't think those are overnight answers. And I don't think that there's simple, easy solutions. I think it's tough. It's hard. It's long. It's
And it's there's just lying. I don't know if you watch succession on HBO.
That movie was such a great comedy wrapped in a drama about the absurdity of this country and all of this stuff. But there's at one point, Brian Cox, who now is like in every television commercial. I think he's doing McDonald's for crying out loud. This English actor, you know, who plays this Rupert Murdoch-like character and the whole idea is like, which of the kids is going to get the empire? And there are just any looks at them at a certain point, you know, through these three years, you know, towards the end,
And he says, I love you, but you are not serious people. Yeah, I feel like we have a lot of that. Yeah, we do. We do. And I think that again, taking a deep breath,
looking at what still is operating today and making plans and contingency plans are what good leaders are doing that are impacted by this. And we are hopeful that the services that all of us know people who are reliant upon are not disrupted. And I think that that's an important thing for us to pay attention to. And how important is proactive medicine?
it's incredibly important. I think we we know that. We don't mean necessarily pearls, but I just mean just in your prescription. Your hypertension is a lot better than dealing with a stroke. You know, managing things on the front end, you know, in children, managing, you know, issues that are identified early. We know that from early intervention when children are born with with challenges, those zero to five years are so incredibly important. And then it impacts their ability to learn and be
contributing members of society over time. You know, there's so many things that we know that we've learned that we have in place and we have the mechanisms in place. And so to see those disrupted would not be the best thing for society at large. And so I think it's again, taking a deep breath and making common sense, having common sense conversations and again, talking to our elected officials when it's when it's when things like this get challenged. And that's what I think
Many leaders are doing across the state and across the country today. Certainly, there are a lot of things to root for remaining intact. And some of them have nothing to do with health care. They're about job creation and workforce development and potential investments in things that will impact this community for the next 100 years. And let's just hope Common Sense prevails. And I get the lawmakers, like our lawmakers. It was hard to weigh in yesterday.
I mean, I appreciate them not weighing in when they didn't know all the answers because often that gets rewarded. Yes. And we don't need to add to confusion. There was enough confusion yesterday and there's still some confusion now. And so, you know, making sure we pay close attention and that people with clear answers are the ones that are speaking. Yeah. And I think the biggest disconnect for me is the administration saying that no direct services to people is meant to be interrupted, but yet clearly that was not what happened.
Right. And so now we'll see if that's resolved and if money is continuing to flow to those organizations, students, whatever it might be. Exactly. That's what we'll see over the course of this week. OK. It's tough. Look, there's no if ands or buts about it, for sure. Do you feel like we're in a good space leadership-wise here? When I say here, I mean, more of central Illinois.
Clearly we're a state like other states where we have this kind of rural versus metropolitan kind of thing we'd like to think about. But do you feel like we have active leadership, you know, proactive leadership? You know, I think I'm because we've got a lot. We've got some new faces and faces around. There are new faces. And in fact, I'm trying to take some time to get to know and meet new leaders and new organizations across the community.
And I think that it's both and it's hard to see leaders who are established who have, you know, a track record of doing great work, retire or move on. And it's also really good when you see new people with new ideas take new roles. And so I think we have both of those things happening here locally. I think it's, you know, we're in a time where important things like our school district is looking at a leadership change in the future. There's things that we, you know, are going to pay close attention to.
over the course of the next 18 months to two years to see how those transitions happen. And again, I think there are a lot of great people in central Illinois and certainly in Decatur and making county who are invested their whole lives into making this community better. And, you know, from people like our mayor and people who are on our city council, you know, to people on school boards throughout the, throughout the county and the community. So I think that, yes,
We have great leadership and yes, we have new leadership and yes, there's always room for more people to have a seat at the table and I hope that we continue to see that because sometimes the best thing you can do when you find yourself frustrated about what's happening at the federal level and you feel like you don't have, you know, autonomy, power, control in those matters, which, you know, if we're being honest, we all have one vote.
But you can do so much at the local level. And you and I talk a lot about that. So getting involved and getting engaged. Great place to start. Tomorrow night, 6 30 p.m. MacArthur High School. They're having their first initial session with the public attendees are encouraged to share their insights on the district strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. That's a SWAT. If you've ever been in corporate America, you've done a hundred of those over the last 20 years.
10 years are encouraged to share provide general feedback based on their experiences, perceptions of the district. So 6 30 tomorrow at MacArthur High School. They have another one February 20th at 6 30 at Johns Hill. I would encourage you a if you haven't been the next old stomping grounds in the last 10 years, you probably will be a little surprised when you go to MacArthur. Beautiful. You're definitely going to be surprised if you go to Johns Hill. So, you know, go into these schools.
You know, you might be 65 years old and go, well, I don't have any kids in school anymore. No, but these are the people who are going to take care of you in the future. This is your community, your society, right? This is the community's future. And it matters. Our education matters how we educate public education to the young people of this community is incredibly important. And it does point to the future and job readiness and people to
to take care of our work when we retire, right, Brian? Yes. Oh, we need them. Yeah. And some days that feels closer to the never. Yeah. Maybe this week. Well, if we're not here Monday or next Wednesday, you'll know why. No, I'm good. We've got too much to do. And there's too many things that are moving and moving in a good way. I hope that this disruption is temporary.
And that we can get back to the business of making lives better and making our community better and giving chances to people Last thing on earth. We ought to be doing in the year of 2025 is shutting people out last thing agreed I'm a nurse, but I think that I know by the way, are you watching the pit? No, okay. I here's your assignment. Okay We only got like a minute left here on
Max. Okay. It's Bill Max. The pit. All right. Noah Wiley. Thirty years later from ER. They're going to do ER again, but they couldn't settle the rights with the family. So they've created. It's a 15 hour day, one hour at a time. So every episode.
And there's a nurse, the head nurse, that reminds me so much of Karen Schneller. Tell me when you're... I watch it. I think there's four episodes out. So there's a new one each week. I want your take as a nurse on that show, The Pit. It takes place in Pittsburgh.
Remember the young John Carter? Yes. He's now the grizzled old veteran in charge of and that's still connected to the years of COVID and trauma from all that. You'll I hope like it. I'm watching or you might come back and go. That's just absolutely full of crap and nowhere near real life. All right. That's it for us. If you're missing the podcast or show today, podcast available at now to cater.com. We'll be back with you bright and early six a.m. tomorrow. Have a great day.
WSOY Decatur and W277DB Decatur. WSOY 1340 AM and 103.3 FM. Streaming live at nowdecatur.com. This is RJ Christ with your stories now brought to you by Shop on Maine. Decatur public schools are continuing the development of their strategic planning and master facility plan, Roadmap 2030. The public is invited to two upcoming planning sessions
Planning began last October with a committee of students, staff, community partners, educational collaborators and business leaders. They'll have a final recommendation for the Board of Education in May. The first community input session is at MacArthur High School tomorrow at 6.30. State officials are scrambling to understand the scope of President Trump's attempt to pause federal spending on several programs. Attorney General Kwame Raul is joining other Democrat AG suing the president. They argue the executive branch does not have the power to stop
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