Advocating for cancer patients. Husband, dad, son, brother, chronic disease patient, neighbor, DC resident, Jesus follower. Tweets are my own.
Joined March 2019
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🚨 Positive news! A federal court struck down the Trump Administration’s scheme to impose work requirements on people with cancer and other serious conditions—despite the law clearly exempting them. A really meaningful decision for patients.
Brian Connell retweeted
NEWS: Nebraska rushed to be the first state to require adults in Medicaid to prove they're working, under Trump's budget law.
The result: A cancer patient lost his insurance, while several consultants are making lots of money.
By @rachanadpradhan
npr.org/2026/11/09/nx-s1-603…
Brian Connell retweeted
Just to put this in perspective:
Medicaid funding losses from HR 1 are expected to total $6.5 billion in West Virginia between FYs 25-34; about $1 billion/yr once fully phased in. These cuts are permanent compared with a temporary (and smaller) RHTP shvs.org/resources/assessing…
Pleased to see @HHSGov announce $202 million in funding for West Virginia through the Rural Health Transformation Program.
This investment wouldn’t be possible without the Working Families @TaxCuts, which we worked hard to secure in the Senate. Thank you to @POTUS for his continued commitment to ensuring our rural communities have access to the resources they deserve.
hhs.gov/press-room/trump-adm…
Total repudiation of the Administration’s patently illegal effort to ignore the law Congress actually passed and instead erect a scheme that would have stripped many patients of their coverage.
A federal judge sides with 25 states and the District of Columbia, which had argued that the new Medicaid work requirement rule would force medically frail people to clear unnecessary hurdles to maintain government-funded health insurance coverage. nbcnews.com/health/health-ca…
Brian Connell retweeted
A federal judge sides with 25 states and the District of Columbia, which had argued that the new Medicaid work requirement rule would force medically frail people to clear unnecessary hurdles to maintain government-funded health insurance coverage. nbcnews.com/health/health-ca…
Brian Connell retweeted
Good news: A judge struck down part of a federal rule that required patients to prove that their serious health conditions significantly impair their ability to work to qualify for Medicaid. The ruling may help reduce harmful barriers to coverage for cancer patients.
Brian Connell retweeted
Most lawyers I know make $50 million in 4 years easy
SCOOP: Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan billionaire, really wanted a pardon. He got it not long after his daughter hired Alina Habba, a lawyer close to Trump, in a deal worth more than $50 million. Habba was also working at DOJ at the time.
nytimes.com/2026/10/20/us/po…
Brian Connell retweeted
I dug into the finances of the three nonprofit arbitrators resolving No Surprises Act disputes. For every dollar they made in '25, ~half was pure profit.
Read more about these 'mini-gods' and how they're getting rich off their new jobs.
tinyurl.com/5ye2csun via @statnews
Brian Connell retweeted
@bridget__early has scooped the 1st data I have seen on Nebraska Medicaid work reporting requirements and it is worse than I expected.
Incomplete data shows that 1,000 have explicitly lost/denied coverage and almost half of new applicants are not getting thru the red tape.
Brian Connell retweeted
Propublica did a hell of a lot more than just take the guy's word. The donations to the super PAC are documented. And they published emails between the donor and the head of the super PAC that discussed hiding the source of the money. Don't insult our intelligence.
The seven-year-old allegations made against Senator Collins and her staff in this piece are categorically false. There have never been any allegations of wrongdoing by the Collins for Senator campaign, and the campaign was never the target of the FBI investigation.
ProPublica took the word of someone who pled guilty to five counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, and making false submissions to the FEC. As Martin Kao was awaiting sentencing, he began making outlandish charges about the Collins office, deflecting blame from himself and placing it on Senator Collins, including alleging that our office required contributions before taking meetings and engaged in extortion, pay for play, and bribery. The FBI and the Court obviously did not believe Kao, and in 2025 he was sentenced in two separate cases to prison terms of seven years and three years to be served concurrently, as well as an additional five years of supervised release at the end of his prison term.
It is important to note that during the Biden Administration the FBI and the Department of Justice thoroughly investigated the Navatek matter. The Collins campaign cooperated fully with the FBI throughout the investigation, producing all of the documents it requested and serving as fact witnesses in official settings. In response to the allegations in the ProPublica piece, the FBI clearly stated that a suggestion of wrongdoing by Senator Collins or her staff is “totally false.”
These issues were resolved in 2021, and the FBI has not contacted us about Martin Kao since then.
Brian Connell retweeted
The sad fact about this story is that there are a lot of people in DC who will read this and simply shrug and say, “it’s just the way Washington has worked for decades.” And I’m sure senators (who should be quaking about a story like this) have instead convinced themselves that this isn’t even illegal and if it is, it will take years (or never) for law enforcement to build a case. The swamp is a real thing, this admin didn’t drain it, they monetized it. There’s an extra layer of rot in this town at the moment and everyone who has lived and worked here for a while knows it.
New: In late 2024, FBI investigators had enough evidence to launch a sweeping bribery probe that could ensnare top lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins. Then Trump was reelected and eviscerated the FBI and DOJ teams handling public corruption probes. propub.li/4yLLwaF
Brian Connell retweeted
I have meeting after meeting with congressional offices, and they just don't get it: you simply are not addressing affordability if you are not addressing excessive hospital prices.
Brian Connell retweeted
And then you get pancreatic cancer and think, sure I can afford a 400k/year drug on my own. The average American can’t save enough to afford the very expensive care they might not predict they wind up needing.
Brian Connell retweeted
New exclusive: In his 25 years as an OBGYN, Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas repeatedly sued patients for outstanding medical debt. At least 81 were arrested during their court proceedings. Some had debt from c-sections; others from miscarriages.
Brian Connell retweeted
I helped pass this law in 2020. It's purpose is to prevent drug traffickers, Russian & Chinese kleptocrats, and other international criminals from setting up anonymously owned companies to hide their money in the US. Trump's Treasury Dept. is doing this to help criminals. 1/
Today, @FinCENnews issued a final rule that permanently removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information. FinCEN today also announced that it will delete previously reported information by U.S. persons from the beneficial ownership information database.
Brian Connell retweeted
Trump to HIV and Cancer Patients: Get Back to Work prospect.org/2026/07/31/trum…
Brian Connell retweeted
First, the plans and premiums were filed in May. It’s July 28. Rollouts start next week. Could we have done this a little earlier?
Second, this (combined with the significant Medigap increases this year) will push more people to MAPD. Which costs the taxpayers more money vs Original Medicare.
Third, I’ll get back to you on if I continue to have any options under $10 in 2027
Brian Connell retweeted
NEW w/ @rking_19: The Trump admin is in court *today* defending its new rule requiring Medicaid patients w cancer & other chronic illnesses to prove they're too sick to work or lose their insurance.
25 states and DC sued over the policy.
politico.com/news/2026/07/28…
