DHS is using obscure law to snoop on journalists, non-profits, unions

Re:DHS is using obscure law to snoop on journalists, non-pro... by JumpCrisscross on Saturday August 29, 2026 @05:25PM (#49493469)

Note that the DHS budget ($100bn) is sufficient to provide healthcare to every uninsured child, and about half (EDIT: a third) of what it would cost to provide universal healthcare to every American under 18 at the CMS average rate.

At the end of the day this sort of wastefulness eventually attracts attention.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DHS is using obscure law to snoop on journalists, non-pro... by some_random on Saturday August 29, 2026 @06:10PM (#49493753)

Medicare alone costs $1.21 Trillion, I find that extremely hard to believe.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DHS is using obscure law to snoop on journalists, non-pro... by JumpCrisscross on Saturday August 29, 2026 @06:21PM (#49493806)

> Medicare alone costs $1.21 Trillion

To cover 70.5 million seniors [1]. $17k per senior.

“Per person personal health care spending for the 65 and older population was $22,356 in 2020, over 5 times higher than spending per child ($4,217) and almost 2.5 times the spending per working-age person ($9,154)” [2].

80 million under 19 [3] at that rate comes to about $400bn. And most efficiency estimates would take at least a third off that when we eliminate redundant billing processes.

Given 6% of children lack health insurance, we could cover them for about $24bn. Less than Trump’s war in Iran has cost [4].

[1] https://data.cms.gov/summary-statistics-on-beneficiary-enrol...

[2] https://www.cms.gov/data-research/statistics-trends-and-repo...

[3] https://www.cms.gov/data-research/statistics-trends-and-repo...

[4] https://www.aecf.org/blog/uninsured-children-in-america

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DHS is using obscure law to snoop on journalists, non-pro... by DrHungers on Sunday August 30, 2026 @01:51PM (#49501016)

I hope it attracts attention. Everything bad that rational people predicted about the DHS when it was created has come true, but people seem to have become comfortable with their civil liberties taken away.

[ Parent | on HN ]