The Department of Health and Human Services has released a disturbing report titled: Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of “Gender Medicine.” The report says pediatric gender clinics and hospitals may have used misleading or potentially fraudulent diagnostic and procedural codes to obtain insurance coverage for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries on minors.

HHS points to diagnoses such as unspecified endocrine disorders and precocious puberty that could make treatments more likely to qualify for reimbursement. HHS is calling for investigation as medicine, money and ideology appear to have formed a dangerous alliance.

The report argues these recurring medical needs created potentially lucrative, long-term revenue streams. Financial incentives can overwhelm the duty to protect vulnerable patients.

Follow the money and the picture becomes even more troubling. HHS says pediatric gender programs grew from a handful of specialized clinics into programs at more than 225 hospitals and health systems nationwide by the early 2020s. The report describes what it calls a “captive patient” dynamic, in which children beginning puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones can require years of medications, laboratory testing, specialist visits, monitoring, and potentially surgeries. HHS cites estimates of nearly $120 million in submitted charges involving minors since 2019, including thousands of surgical procedures and hormone or blocker treatments.

Government policy helped build the environment in which this system flourished. HHS says the Biden Administration actively promoted access to gender-transition procedures for minors through federal agencies, civil-rights enforcement, funding policies, and legal actions. The Justice Department challenged state restrictions, while federal policy increasingly treated so-called “gender-affirming care” as protected healthcare.

These positions reflected Democratic Party policy and strengthened institutions defending pediatric transition practices. States and parents seeking restrictions often found themselves fighting both the medical establishment and federal government. The result turned disputed medicine into institutional policy backed by government and taxpayer dollars. But the deepest scandal is measured in damaged lives.

HHS cites young people and parents describing hormones, surgeries, regret, and lasting physical consequences. These children encountered a system predisposed toward transition and supported by Democratic Party political ideology, institutional pressure, and financial incentives.

Children cannot comprehend every lifelong consequence of sterilization, altered development, or removal of healthy body parts. Adults have a moral responsibility to protect children from those who would exploit their vulnerability.

Isaiah 10:1 warns, “Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed.”

HHS has given investigators a roadmap to determine whether aggressive advocacy crossed into medical fraud. Those exploiting children for ideology or profit deserve investigation, accountability, and justice.

Sources:

HHS, Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of “Gender Medicine”
https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/hhs-wolves-in-white-coats.pdf

The Epoch Times, HHS Report on Alleged Pediatric Gender Treatment Fraud: 5 Key Takeaways
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/hhs-report-on-alleged-pediatric-gender-treatment-fraud-5-key-takeaways-6075444

Wisconsin Democrats narrowly avoided nominating an openly democratic-socialist candidate for governor, but perhaps “avoided” deserves an asterisk.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley defeated State Rep. Francesca Hong by less than one percentage point, with over 780,000 votes cast. That’s a razor-thin margin over Hong, who openly embraces democratic socialism and previously advocated defunding police, abolishing ICE, and even abolishing the U.S. Senate. The national media quickly portrayed Crowley’s victory as the Democratic establishment stopping the socialist insurgency. Crowley was the “moderate.” Hong was the socialist.

Socialism defeated. Democratic moderation restored. Not so fast.

Crowley rejects the socialist label and campaigns as a pragmatic Democrat. Yet what constitutes a “moderate” Democrat in 2026?

Crowley’s own platform proposes opening BadgerCare enrollment to any household that wants it, with government subsidies and sliding-scale premiums. He proposes guaranteeing every family with a child under five a subsidized childcare slot, with costs capped at seven percent of household income, and taxpayers covering the rest. He supports universal taxpayer-funded pre-K, increasing government housing assistance, expanding Housing First statewide, raising Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $15 immediately and $20 by 2030, repealing Act 10, restoring full collective bargaining for public employees and increasing government investment in public education. He says he’s not socialist? Really?

That distinction matters. Democratic socialism advances through expanding collective responsibility and government influence over areas traditionally governed by individuals, families, communities and private markets. Hong openly embraced that philosophy. Crowley uses the language of affordability, access, opportunity and investment to promote many policies that move government further into socialism. The media nevertheless places Crowley in the “moderate” column because Hong stood considerably farther left.

Perhaps the real story isn’t that Wisconsin Democrats rejected socialism. It is that an openly democratic-socialist candidate came within a whisker of winning, while the candidate identified as the moderate, already socialist, would have represented the Democratic Party’s progressive wing not many years ago.

So, has the Democratic Party gone extreme? Wisconsin provides an illuminating answer. Hong came within 3,200 votes of winning. Those Democratic primary voters were willing to make an avowed democratic socialist their nominee for governor of a critical swing state. And the victor demonstrates how far the party’s definition of “moderate” has traveled.

Proverbs 14:15 says, “The simple believes every word, But the prudent considers well his steps.”

Labels can disguise political movement. “Socialist,” “progressive,” “liberal” and “moderate” matter less than examining what candidates actually propose government should control, provide, subsidize and regulate. Wisconsin Democrats may have appeared to draw a line between socialism and moderation. But that line looks more like a distinction in language than a difference in direction.

Sources

Axios, “Crowley beats socialist Hong in Wisconsin Democratic governor primary”

Associated Press, Wisconsin Democratic primary and ideological divide

David Crowley Campaign, “Badger Basics” platform

CNN/KFile, Hong’s record advocating defunding and abolishing police

Wisconsin Watch, Democratic gubernatorial candidates and positions

Wall Street Journal, “In Wisconsin, the Centrists Strike Back With Crowley’s Win”

The Guardian, Crowley defeats Hong 39.8% to 39.4%