Gov. Gavin Newsom's final State of the State address. (Photo: gov.ca.gov)
Plain Stupid, Plain Evil: Gov Gavin Newsom and his Medi-Cal Healthcare Insurance Plan
Newsom and Medi-Cal are annihilators of the goodness of our traditional California medical profession
By Patrick Wagner, MD, June 17, 2026 8:00 am
Governor Gavin Newsom and his Medi-Cal healthcare insurance plan is just plain stupid and plain evil. He and it are foolish and callous thieves, killers of the Spirit of healing, destroyers of the confidence and trust between doctors and patients, and annihilators of the goodness of our traditional California medical profession. He has replaced it with an evil, calculated, aggressive, genocidal, hoodwinking healthcare industrial complex, completely devoid of empathy, compassion, and caring. Indeed, resentment boils in his gentle disguise, and he hates us. More on that later!
During my young, and now old adult life, I have been admitted to the hospital two times, once because of a college football injury in 1971, and now in February of 2026. I thank God for my good health, my experiences, and for recognizing His purpose for me to be right here in beautiful California right now, as a steward and promoter of His healing. I would exchange my life for absolutely nothing!
That first admission in 1971 was a powerful driving force that enticed me to stop being a football player and start being a pre-med student. I needed surgery on my right knee, and that changed everything. I loved that admission because of that injury, pain and all. The light went off. Now I could channel my work ethic, my desire, and my competitive nature into the delicate and gentle world of healing, and particularly the operating room, a dream I had from as far back as I can remember.
The second admission this year to a local hospital, involved in “the thick of” Governor Newsom’s Medi-Cal Healthcare Insurance Industrial Complex, was also a powerful driving force. It enticed me to help you understand plain stupid, plain evil. Because when you do, you are going to fix it, and that’s my dream for our future.
Following is an Explanation of Benefits, or EOB, related to my real time recent admission to the local northern California hospital I chose. Let me point out that all four of the big players, namely Sutter Health, Dignity Health, Kaiser, and UC Davis, operate the same, and play the game with Governor Gavin Newsom and his Medi-Cal. Newsom is the boss.
What is an EOB? It is a legally required document detailing how a healthcare claim was processed by Medi-Cal. It is also a congratulatory statement on government savings.
The following statement reflects my recent TWO-DAY admission to that local hospital complex.
Note the “bottom line” and ask yourself if this is affordable. Total charge was $48,918.00! My savings are $29,449.21! Medicare (Medi-Cal) paid $17,656.20! My health plan (more Medi-Cal) paid $1812.59! Now look at the payment side of this bottom line. My copay, deductible, coinsurance, and services not covered are $0.00! Does that look smart to you?!
Every “senior” in California who is by law FORCED to do healthcare business via Medicare (Medi-Cal) receives this legally required document detailing how the healthcare claim was processed. Most don’t even know it, because there is one very attractive, all bold caps, five-word sentence at the top of the Medicare/Medicaid/Medi-Cal Summary notice along with the charge/payments flow sheet you see here. That sentence is…THIS IS NOT A BILL.
Where does this statement get filed? You got it, the round file. No worries here! A case of pure DENIAL!
Have you ever shopped at Grocery Outlet? Well, I have. Grocery Outlet competes with Safeway and Raley’s, and your receipt is congratulatory, saying for example you saved $100.00 for this shopping cart full of groceries for shopping here instead of there. Same products, different store!
So back to the dollar number of $48,918.00, which is a wildly exaggerated, radically dishonest, marked up total of the cost of my hospital bed, the lab, the x-rays, the doctor’s work, the nurse’s work, the medications, and even the janitorial work associated with my getting a clean gown and being able to use a clean bathroom. All for a TWO-DAY STAY! That cost is WAY TO HIGH! And from my experience and wisdom regarding the true cost of these services that I utilized, they were all very, very substandard!
And look at just how much money I saved by having Governor Gavin Newsom and his “wizardly adroit skill” via Medi-Cal save me, $29,419.21! But you still must consider the payment he allegedly paid out of $17, 656.20 on my behalf, YOUR TAX DOLLARS, such that I could hobble out TWO DAYS later, discharged in perfect peace. I did not feel peaceful in the least.
How did I feel? Very sad for you. The logjam of dishonest bureaucracy has completely paralyzed healing. That TWO DAY admission was despicable. Allow me to throw a little common sense medicalese at you. The workers were substandard. The diagnosis was “community acquired bacterial pneumonia” requiring admission based on an x-ray demonstrating a left lower lobe pneumonia, fever, and an elevated white count with a left shift. The admitting physician never proved the pneumonia was bacterial, so she did what all sloppy physician slaves of Newsom do nowadays, which was treat me with broad spectrum antibiotics.
I got better but not good. On the second day of this admission, now not delirious, I posed a simple question of my attending hospitalist doctor on her morning rounds. I asked her if she would prescribe Ivermectin in an off-label fashion for me to take along with the outpatient antibiotics she ordered to complete my healing process. She scowled at me. The substandard nurse assigned to me asked her what Ivermectin was, and she scowled at him…” It’s horse medicine”, and the rest of his time helping me turned into hatred because of her outlash against him. The doctor told me that I need some education in vaccination knowledge and schedules and scurried out of the room not to talk to me again. How’s that for bedside manner? It is substandard. She needs to be fired and replaced by a caring physician that understands the laws that govern God fearing physicians!
My assessment of that entire fiasco admission is very simple. It was plain stupid and plain evil. If I had the power, I would fire every single doctor and nurse and lab tech and x-ray tech and housekeeping person, including the CEO of the hospital. I would gut it, purge it, and start over!
What you and I really need in a hospital is a place of quiet, cleanliness, caring and gentle, competitive and highly qualified doctors and nurses, not hindered in their jobs, which is to end diseases that have entered you as fast and as safely as they can. They want to help you, not hurt you. There is a Spirit of healing present in a good hospital, and it’s easily and joyfully achievable.
Affordability is key as well. Bureaucracy defines itself as an improver of society in the name of affordability and quality of life, but we see with Governor Newsom and his Medi-Cal healthcare industrial complex just the opposite. That is just plain stupid, and plain evil! Plain smart and plain good is business between a doctor and a patient, with no Medi-Cal sickness allowed!
The other day, I came across an interview that Governor Newsom had with Anderson Cooper of CNN in March of this year that I would like you to open and watch. It takes about 25 minutes, but I think is very telling. Part of my job as a physician is to interpret human behavior. How does Newsom conduct himself? Sycophantically! Notice all the humanitarianism, and feelings! He looks troubled.
Newsom faces scrutiny regarding the mischief of Medicare/Medi-Cal fraud, waste, and abuse that has been occurring for many years now. His evil is in the early stage of examination for all to see. I think he’s scared. This interview is essentially a plea for leniency for what is happening to him right now. He is getting DOGE’d to death! He is a victim of his own circumstances, and he’s trapped in a self-made prison.
Back at the start of this paper, I described Newsom as boiling with resentment. My diagnosis is that he has played it out against you and I. It didn’t work. There is nowhere for him to go except obscurity. We say, should we punish him for all the evil and suffering he caused? My answer is no, because we all played a little stupid part in this situation. And our fear and cowardice of Newsom and his lawmaking machinery down at the capital is on us. Cowardice and evil are evil, a little wicked part in this situation.
My stance is that we should develop a top-notch medical system devoid of bureaucracy, call it TEMSA-care. And we need safeguards, protection of our rights to the pursuit of free enterprise medical care, free of the California Medi-Cal industrial healthcare insurance complex swamp for good, accomplishable by expanding the ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Who knows, maybe Gavin’s light will go off, he will wake up like the rest of us and be nice, confess his evil, change his thinking pattern, and join us. Time will tell.
- Gavin the Snake and Waste, Fraud and Abuse - June 29, 2026
- The No-Nonsense California Doctor - June 24, 2026
- Plain Stupid, Plain Evil: Gov Gavin Newsom and his Medi-Cal Healthcare Insurance Plan - June 17, 2026
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I’m not really sure what to make of your submission, sir, but one of my first impressions is that like my fluctuating thought that a lot of cops should be spending some time locked up in their own jails, maybe doctors should experience what normie patients do – the medical industry has more than its share of unspoken “do you know who I am,” egotistical, arrogant assholes who order procedures without explaining why and treat patients like cows entering the barn to be milked. I’m not sure about the conflation of medi-cal with medicare, I’ve personally and thankfully temporarily dealt with “it’s your turn to be hired” medi-cal employees and those are the stupidest people on earth while medicare policies can be stupid in that they consider newer, more efficient, more effective and safer procedures to be elective, they won’t pay for it. As for having dental insurance, I may as well not have it because the entire bill beyond examinations and cleanings comes out of my pocket. As vapid and idiotic as Newsom and his sociopathic fellow travelers can be, there should be more focus on the medical universities and the destructive curriculum that has more to do with ideology than “first, do no harm.”
I can personally attest that health care just like everything else in this state has gone into the toilet. The doctors are worse than ever. They are just in it for the money. There are a few good doctors, but they are probably less than 5% of the total. Finding a good doctor is like finding a needle in a haystack.
“Gavin’s light will go off, he will wake up like the rest of us and be nice, confess his evil, change his thinking pattern”. Well we all know that’s not going to happen. In his mind hes done nothing wrong, like every narcissist before him. As he is hopefully sitting in a jail cell, he will swear to the heavens hes innocent.
Sir, you cannot be a doctor! You say in your piece, “Medicare (Medi-Cal) paid $17,656.20! ” Medicare and Medi-Cal are two completely different things. Medicare is health insurance for those over 65. Medi-Cal is for poor people. You’d have to be a pretty crappy doctor either to not know the difference or be so poor as to qualify for Medi-Cal.
Shame in California Globe for publishing this article.
Dear CherylP,
I assure you that I am a doctor. I think your misunderstanding is in the word “Medi-Cal” which is the California version of Medicaid. Medicaid and Medicare are both programs of the Center of Medicaid and Medicare Services, or CMS. CMS is the federal agency that administers and oversees the Medicare and Medicaid program. Please check it out! I say thank you California Globe for allowing me to provide the truth to the readers. And thank you, for helping me clarify these points!
Also, your tone is a little harsh. I suspect that you receive Medicare, because frankly, a lot of Medi-Cal recipients are able-bodied, and able-minded, and scheming the system because of Governor Newsom’ invitation to do so. You sound a little biased, indicating that over 65 people aren’t like that. However, you fail to realize that CMS pays out tax dollars whether you are 65 or younger. It’s an honest mistake, but a little “harsh”. Hope this helps! One final point, and that is the massive fraud examination underway by the federal government, including Dr. Oz, the head of CMS. Massive amounts of Medicaid (Medi-Cal) fraud, example providing health insurance for illegal aliens, and Medicare fraud (fake Hospice centers) are under intense, AND INCREASING scrutiny!
These are 2 direct quotes from your article, “Medicare (Medi-Cal) paid $17,656.20!” and “My health plan (more Medi-Cal) paid $1812.59!”.
It seems either you are conflating Medicare with Medi-Cal or you are poor enough to be on Medi-Cal which would be a shame for a doctor.
These are 2 direct quotes from your article, “Medicare (Medi-Cal) paid $17,656.20!” and “My health plan (more Medi-Cal) paid $1812.59!”.
It seems either you are conflating Medicare with Medi-Cal or you are poor enough to be on Medi-Cal which would be a shame for a doctor.
THE (only) CURE THAT WILL WORK
–“If you think health care is expensive now, just wait ’til it’s free.” P.J. O’Rourke
Inevitably, government-run “medical care” will have lower quality and cost more. In addition, as we see in MN, and CA, government “medical care” will be a cesspool of Dem Party fraud and corruption. Medicare alone has unfunded liabilities of $48.3 TRILLION. https://www.us-debt-clock.com/unfunded-liabilities
The only way to preserve quality, patient choice, and control costs is Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) backed by catastrophic insurance. HSA money rolls over year to year and is passed on to a person’s heirs when they die.
The #1 problem with American healthcare is the lack of an economic relationship between the patient “customer” and the doctor, hospital, lab, pharma company etc. “sellers.” In the vast majority of healthcare transactions, the buyer and seller are spending other people’s money. Additionally, because of the lack of an economic relationship, there is essentially no price competition for healthcare services. Interestingly, when people pay for medical services out of their own pockets, such as Lasik eye surgery, there is price competition, and costs have come down.
The lack of an economic relationship is unique to healthcare. There are economic relationships for food, housing, transportation, electricity, water, clothes, etc. In the absence of that economic relationship, inevitably there is a big bureaucracy (government or insurance) and/or queuing (e.g. patients diagnosed with cancer wait 6 months for their first oncologist appointment), and/or officially or unofficially denying expensive medical care to people the system deems not worth the cost (e.g., no joint replacement surgery for people over 70, “live in a wheelchair and take pain meds the rest of your life”), to ration and regulate access to healthcare.
An indisputable rule of human nature is that most people, most of the time, spend their own money much more carefully than they spend other people’s money.
Some American companies use this system, HSAs backed by catastrophic insurance. Indiana uses it for Medicaid. The most prominent example is Singapore. In Singapore, they pay 25% of the share of GDP for healthcare that America does; the quality is equal or better, and the results are better (although that’s partly cultural).
See “The Cure That Works: How to have the World’s Best Healthcare at a Quarter of the Price” by Sean Flynn, co-author of the leading economics textbooks used in college and author of “Economics for Dummies,” which should be required reading in DC.
Furthermore, using this system will help with our debt and deficit while preserving patient choice and the quality of our healthcare services.
I spent 4 days in s hospital due to complications from a prescription drug and what would otherwise be a very minor injury. It was $138,000. The only way for most people to afford that is with insurance. Insurance and medical treatment are businesses, and those whose paperwork are done with the sharpest pencills win. You are a valued customer in both realms until you sign on the dotted line. Insurance and the medical industry promis the moonz until you need either one. Insurance has to provide just enough approved care to not run customers off, the medical industry inflates billing in many ways. They both beat up the patient, who will orobably agree to pay everything he has if he hurts enough. That’s evil.
If you don’t have insurance you wiil get screwed over hard by medical billing. At the very least they won’t give you the 20% discount they give a previous insurer when you offer to pay cash. The billing for the emergency room is the worst, the billing for the emergency room is like someone stuck a pistol in your face, took your wallet, carjacked you and then came around later to do a home invasion – even with their offered cash “discount.” When I was uninsured I had to resort to safe for all species veterinary medications – otherwise I would now be homeless, it’s that bad.