Health
Reagan Invoked the ‘Welfare Queen.’ The New G.O.P. Target Is a Lazy Gamer.
Ronald Reagan and his fellow Republicans once invoked what they referred to as “welfare queens” as they made the case for reining in social spending in the 1970s and 1980s, painting a picture of unscrupulous women bilking the system to finance a sumptuous lifestyle.
Now as they try to justify cuts to Medicaid, congressional Republicans are focused on a different deadbeat poster child: the shiftless male video gamer who lazes around the house attached to his console while getting free health care that should go to more deserving people.
The imagery has changed, but the political tactic from the G.O.P. remains the same. By making broad generalizations about the types of people who could inappropriately benefit from federal benefits, they make the idea of cutting back seem virtuous rather than stingy.
With a new, restrictive work requirement for Medicaid and other cost-cutting measures emerging as main points of contention in the political debate over their sweeping domestic policy bill, Republicans have sought to play down the potential fallout for Americans who rely on the health care program for the poor. They say no one who truly merits help will lose benefits.
To bolster their case, they assert that ridding the Medicaid rolls of slackers and undocumented immigrants who should not be getting taxpayer help will shave off billions of dollars without touching benefits for those in need. Their message is that the necessary savings can be achieved by going after the old standbys of waste, fraud and abuse.
“You don’t want able-bodied workers on a program that is intended, for example, for single mothers with two small children who is just trying to make it,” Speaker Mike Johnson said on CNN in February as he began laying the groundwork for the Medicaid cuts. “That’s what Medicaid is for, not for 29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games.”
Representative Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, piled on to the perceived couch potato community.
“If you are able to work in America, well then you should not be sitting at home playing video games and collecting a check,” she said last month after meeting with President Trump and hearing his pitch for the legislation.
Other Republicans, Democrats and data analysts say that most Medicaid beneficiaries are already working. They note that even if a glut of loafing gamers did exist, cutting them off from government-provided insurance won’t save much money, since they don’t use much health care.
“They’re not on Medicaid because they are malingerers,” Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, said about his 1.3 million constituents currently on Medicaid. “They are on Medicaid because they can’t afford private health insurance.”
But Republican proponents of cuts say their argument was underscored by a recent analysis from the American Enterprise Institute. Applying the American Time Use Survey and the Current Population Survey, the report estimated that able-bodied Medicaid recipients who don’t work spent about 4.2 hours a day watching television or playing video games, their second most common activity after sleeping. Working Medicaid recipients, it said, spent about 2.7 hours watching TV or gaming.
The speaker’s office said the findings substantiated Mr. Johnson’s point that some beneficiaries were gaming the system as they gamed at home.
“The next time a Democrat makes false claims about ‘Medicaid cuts,’ just remember that what they’re really saying is they want illegal aliens and able-bodied adults playing video games at home to continue stealing resources from those who need it,” the speaker’s office said in a news release.
Yet a new analysis from the Brookings Institution questioned the potential impact of the new House-approved work rule, which would require childless adults without physical limitations to show they had worked, volunteered or gone to school for at least 80 hours in the month before enrolling in Medicaid.
Even if the new requirements now under review in the Senate did catch some idle gamers, the savings might not prove to be that great, the analysis said. The 4.3 million people the study said were on Medicaid with no limits on activity recorded the lowest average Medicaid spending, while 40 percent did not use medical services at all. The authors said their data showed that just 300,000 beneficiaries reported that they didn’t work simply because they didn’t want a job.
“Speaker Johnson’s archetypal young men who hang out in basements playing video games are not as common as he may imagine, and just don’t use a lot of health care services,” said the Brookings report, written by Sherry Glied and Dong Ding. “Disenrolling this group would generate only modest federal savings, far less than needed to offset a significant share of the bill’s tax cuts,” they added.
Democrats say Republicans are well aware that millions of Medicaid beneficiaries are not whiling away the hours at home playing video games while they eagerly take advantage of a program where eligibility is tied to low income. They say Republicans are misrepresenting the situation in pursuit of savings to offset tax cuts in their legislation.
“They are just desperate for money and they know there’s a lot of money to be saved by pulling people off welfare,” said Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii. “And so they have to imagine an unworthy person.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said Republicans wanted to justify their Medicaid cuts by stigmatizing “health care as a handout, when it should be something that enables the whole society to be more productive.”
“I think we are descending into the old ‘welfare queen’ demagoguery, and I think it is a disservice,” he said.
When Reagan ran for president in 1976, he peppered campaign speeches with the anecdote of a Chicago woman who had found a way to bilk the welfare system through the use of aliases and other fraud. The claim that the system was rife with corruption was meant to stir anger and resentment among voters who worked for a living.
Though suggestions of widespread cases of people living a luxurious lifestyle on welfare were debunked from the start, the impression has persisted for decades and surfaces in political and policy fights from time to time. When Congress enhanced unemployment benefits during the Covid pandemic, conservatives balked, saying the extra pay would keep those already disinclined to work at home.
Mr. Johnson and others have accused able-bodied unemployed Americans of “cheating” by receiving Medicaid coverage when they could work, even though the expansion of Medicaid in many states under the Affordable Care Act has made it permissible to obtain coverage without working as long as low-income guidelines are met.
“If you are able to work and you refuse to do so, you are defrauding the system,” Mr. Johnson said in late May on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” He said that there was a “moral component” to the Republican push to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients and that it would provide dignity to those pushed into the work force.
The Brookings analysis said that many of those who don’t hold a job would probably be exempt from new requirements because of reasons such as caring for a family member or other factors. It predicted that the effort would produce unintended consequences such as discouraging those who need Medicaid from qualifying for help because of new paperwork requirements.
“Prior efforts to surgically separate the meritoriously enrolled from the slackers have proved both ineffective and very administratively costly,” the report said. “Medicaid work requirements just don’t work in the way their proponents promise they do.”
Robert Jimison contributed reporting.
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In a dramatic turn of events that’s captured the attention of animal lovers worldwide, Punch — the young macaque at a zoo in Japan famous for his inseparable bond with a stuffed orangutan toy — has reached a major milestone in his journey toward social integration.
On Thursday, visitors and staff at the Ichikawa Zoological and Botanical Garden witnessed a breakthrough: Punch was seen cuddling with and hitching a ride on the back of a fellow macaque.
Punch’s story began with hardship. He was abandoned by his mother shortly after his birth in July 2025 — and to ensure his survival, zookeepers stepped in to hand-rear the primate.
On Jan. 19, 2026, the zoo officially began the process of reintegrating Punch into the “monkey mountain” enclosure.
The transition was initially fraught with tension.
Punch’s story began with hardship when he was abandoned by his mother shortly after he was born. To help him, zookeepers gave him a stuffed toy that he began dragging around everywhere he went. (David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty Images)
As a hand-reared infant, Punch was bullied and ignored by the established group of monkeys.
He was often seen huddled alone with his orange plush companion while the rest of the troop interacted.
BABY MONKEY CARRIES FAITHFUL STUFFED COMPANION EVERYWHERE HE GOES, DRAWING CROWDS AT ZOO
In an official statement released Feb. 27, the Ichikawa Zoological and Botanical Garden detailed the meticulous care behind this process.
Previous viral videos showed Punch bullied by the rest of the troop, running to his plushy toy for comfort. (David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“From an animal welfare perspective, our primary goal is to reintegrate Punch with the troop,” the zoo said.
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The strategy involved nursing Punch within the enclosure, so the troop could recognize him as one of their own, and pairing him with a gentle young female macaque prior to his full release to build his confidence.
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The latest footage, captured by X user @tate_gf, suggested the zoo’s patience is paying off.
The video shows Punch seeking physical contact not from his toy, but from another monkey — eventually climbing onto its back for a vital social behavior for young macaques: the “piggyback ride.”
The zoo’s strategy appears to be paying off: Punch, shown at far left, was recently seen riding on the back of a fellow macaque. (David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty Images)
While Punch still carries his stuffed toy for comfort during moments of perceived danger, the zoo remains optimistic about his progress.
The organization cited the successful 2009 case of Otome, another hand-reared macaque who eventually outgrew her stuffed toy, successfully integrated — and went on to raise four offspring of her own.
The zoo has had crowds coming to see Punch, with hundreds of people lining up to get inside to see the young star, according to reports.
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“I’m hoping Punch has a good life like everybody else does, and think he’s a cute little guy,” one person commented online.
“Such a precious baby,” another person wrote.
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This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Artificial intelligence has been touted as a boon to healthcare, but a new study has revealed its potential shortcomings when it comes to giving medical advice.
In January, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, the medical-focused version of the popular chatbot tool.
The company introduced the tool as “a dedicated experience that securely brings your health information and ChatGPT’s intelligence together, to help you feel more informed, prepared and confident navigating your health.”
But researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that the tool failed to recommend emergency care for a “significant number” of serious medical cases.
The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Feb. 23, aimed to explore how ChatGPT Health — which is reported to have about 40 million users daily — handles situations where people are asking whether to seek emergency care.
Artificial intelligence has been touted as a boon to healthcare, but a new study has revealed its potential shortcomings when it comes to giving medical advice. (iStock)
“Right now, no independent body evaluates these products before they reach the public,” lead author Ashwin Ramaswamy, M.D., instructor of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, told Fox News Digital.
“We wouldn’t accept that for a medication or a medical device, and we shouldn’t accept it for a product that tens of millions of people are using to make health decisions.”
Emergency scenarios
The team created 60 clinical scenarios across 21 medical specialties, ranging from minor conditions to true medical emergencies.
Three independent physicians then assigned an appropriate level of urgency for each case, based on published clinical practice guidelines in 56 medical societies.
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The researchers conducted 960 interactions with ChatGPT Health to see how the tool responded, taking into account gender, race, barriers to care and “social dynamics.”
While “clear-cut emergencies” — such as stroke or severe allergy — were generally handled well, the researchers found that the tool “under-triaged” many urgent medical issues.
The team created 60 clinical scenarios across 21 medical specialties, ranging from minor conditions to true medical emergencies. (iStock)
For example, in one asthma scenario, the system acknowledged that the patient was showing early signs of respiratory failure — but still recommended waiting instead of seeking emergency care.
“ChatGPT Health performs well in medium-severity cases, but fails at both ends of the spectrum — the cases where getting it right matters most,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital. “It under-triaged over half of genuine emergencies and over-triaged roughly two-thirds of mild cases that clinical guidelines say should be managed at home.”
PARENTS FILE LAWSUIT ALLEGING CHATGPT HELPED THEIR TEENAGE SON PLAN SUICIDE
Under-triage can be life-threatening, the doctor noted, while over-triage can overwhelm emergency departments and delay care for those in real need.
Researchers also identified inconsistencies in suicide risk alerts. In some cases, it directed users to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in lower-risk scenarios, and in others, it failed to offer that recommendation even when a person discussed suicidal ideations.
“ChatGPT Health performs well in medium-severity cases, but fails at both ends of the spectrum.”
“The suicide guardrail failure was the most alarming,” study co-author Girish N. Nadkarni, M.D., chief AI officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, told Fox News Digital.
ChatGPT Health is designed to show a crisis intervention banner when someone describes thoughts of self-harm, the researcher noted.
OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, the medical-focused version of the popular chatbot tool, in January 2026. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We tested it with a 27-year-old patient who said he’d been thinking about taking a lot of pills,” Nadkarni said. “When he described his symptoms alone, the banner appeared 100% of the time. Then we added normal lab results — same patient, same words, same severity — and the banner vanished.”
“A safety feature that works perfectly in one context and completely fails in a nearly identical context … is a fundamental safety problem.”
CHATGPT HEALTH PROMISES PRIVACY FOR HEALTH CONVERSATIONS
The researchers were also surprised by the social influence aspect.
“When a family member in the scenario said ‘it’s nothing serious’ — which happens all the time in real life — the system became nearly 12 times more likely to downplay the patient’s symptoms,” Nadkarni said. “Everyone has a spouse or parent who tells them they’re overreacting. The AI shouldn’t be agreeing with them during a potential emergency.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Open AI, creator of ChatGPT, requesting comment.
Physicians react
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, called the new study “important.”
“It underlines the principle that while large language models can triage clear-cut emergencies, they have much more trouble with nuanced situations,” Siegel, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
ChatGPT and other LLMs can be helpful tools, a doctor said, but they “should not be used to give medical direction.” (iStock)
“This is where doctors and clinical judgment come in — knowing the nuances of a patient’s history and how they report symptoms and their approach to health.”
ChatGPT and other LLMs can be helpful tools, Siegel said, but they “should not be used to give medical direction.”
“Machine learning and continued input of data can help, but will never compensate for the essential problem – human judgment is needed to decide whether something is a true emergency or not.”
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Dr. Harvey Castro, an emergency physician and AI expert in Texas, echoed the importance of the study, calling it “exactly the kind of independent safety evaluation we need.”
“Innovation moves fast. Oversight has to move just as fast,” Castro, who also did not work on the study, told Fox News Digital. “In healthcare, the most dangerous mistakes happen at the extremes, when something looks mild but is actually catastrophic. That’s where clinical judgment matters most, and where AI must be stress-tested.”
Study limitations
The researchers acknowledged some potential limitations in the study design.
“We used physician-written clinical scenarios rather than real patient conversations, and we tested at a single point in time — these systems update frequently, so performance may change,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital.
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Additionally, most of the missed emergencies happened in situations where the danger depended on how the condition was changing over time. It’s not clear whether the same problem would happen with acute medical emergencies.
Because the system had to choose just one fixed urgency category, the test may not reflect the more nuanced advice it might give in a back-and-forth conversation, the researchers noted.
ChatGPT Health is designed to show a crisis intervention banner when someone describes thoughts of self-harm. (iStock)
Also, the study wasn’t large enough to confidently detect small differences in how recommendations might vary by race or gender.
“We need continuous auditing, not one-time studies,” Castro noted. “These systems update frequently, so evaluation must be ongoing.”
‘Don’t wait’
The researchers emphasized the importance of seeking immediate care for serious issues.
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“If something feels seriously wrong — chest pain, difficulty breathing, a severe allergic reaction, thoughts of self-harm — go to the emergency department or call 988,” Ramaswamy advised. “Don’t wait for an AI to tell you it’s OK.”
The researchers noted that they support the use of AI to improve healthcare access, and that they didn’t conduct the study to “tear down the technology.”
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“These tools can be genuinely useful for the right things — understanding a diagnosis you’ve already received, looking up what your medications do and their side effects, or getting answers to questions that didn’t get fully addressed in a short doctor’s visit,” Ramaswamy said.
“That’s a very different use case from deciding whether you need emergency care. Treat them as a complement to your doctor, not a replacement.”
“This study doesn’t mean we abandon AI in healthcare.”
Castro agreed that the benefits of AI health tools should be weighed against the risks.
“AI health tools can increase access, reduce unnecessary visits and empower patients with information,” he said. “They are not inherently unsafe, but they are not yet substitutes for clinical judgment.”
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“This study doesn’t mean we abandon AI in healthcare,” he went on. “It means we mature it. Independent testing and stronger guardrails will determine whether AI becomes a safety net or a liability.”
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