care

Dec. 21 (UPI) — House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, R-N.Y., said Sunday that he expects lawmakers to pass a bipartisan compromise on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits.

Jeffries said on ABC News’ “This Week” that lawmakers will pass a bi-partisan compromise to extend ACA tax credits extension in the House, potentially forcing Senate Republicans hand on health insurance subsidies for at least 22 million Americans who will face higher premiums in the new year.

Congress adjourned for Christmas without reaching a deal on extending on the tax credits, which Jeffries promised that House lawmakers will address in early January.

“That will put pressure on John Thune and Senate Republicans to actually do the right thing by the American people, pass a straightforward extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits, so we can keep health care affordable for tens of millions of Americans who deserve to be able to go see a doctor when they need one,” Jeffries said.

Democrats have said if the two sides are unable to reach a deal on an extension, they will wield it against Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.

Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., has said access to affordable health care remains among the most pressing issues among voters.

“It’s just pathetic,” Ryan said. “The last time there was a major national Republican effort to repeal the ACA, we had an overwhelming wave where they got absolutely wiped out, and I think that’s likely what will happen here again.”

A handful of centrist Republicans in vulnerable congressional districts bypassed the authority of House Speaker Mike Johnson to team up with key Democrats to authorize a vote on a three-year tax credit extension when the House returns to Washington the week of Jan. 5.

Some Republican leaders have said they favor allowing Covid-era tax credits that made health care more affordable for millions of Americans to expire or be phased out over several years. Other members of the GOP, however, have said they favor extending the credits for longer.

By a vote of 51-48 Thursday, the Senate rejected a three year ACA extension with four Democrats joining the GOP to vote it down.

It was a game to remember for Londynn Jones. She played with confidence and showed her dribbling skills and displaying her all-around skills as she finished the game with a career-high 28 points in the USC women’s basketball team’s 86-39 win over Cal Poly on Thursday night at Galen Center.

In the first part of the game, Jones was perfect on offense while aggressively defending every time the Mustangs had the ball. When Cal Poly attacked, she came up with steals and completed the play with a field goal, sometimes even adding one more point on a foul.

“I’m just happy we’re figuring it out, starting to finally put the pieces together,” she said. “I know that’s something we’ve been emphasizing in practice, just watching films and putting the pieces together.”

Jones finished the game making 11 out of 16 field goals, and Jazzy Davidson scored 17 points and had nine rebounds.

The Trojans (8-3) looked sluggish in the first half, with Davidson making only three of 11 field goals, and the Mustangs (2-9) grabbing 15 rebounds. But as the game progressed, the USC defense forced Cal Poly to run out the shot clock on multiple occasions and caused 27 turnovers while scoring 39 points off of them.

“We sort of played the way we wanted to, for a majority of the game, and that’s encouraging,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said.

After losing to Connecticut 79-51 on Saturday, Gottlieb wanted to see her team play with intention while defending, she wanted them to pressure on the ball, and she wanted to see participation from all the players on the court, at once.

Offensively, she wanted her team to do the simple things better. Gottlieb wanted them to create space and have better movement.

“I saw that in practice and I think we saw a lot of it in the game tonight, too,” she said. “But, it’ll continue to be a work in progress.

The Trojans started the third quarter with 10 unanswered points. Cal Poly scored only five points in the quarter, allowing the Trojans to extend their advantage, closing out the third quarter with a 43-point lead, 71-28.

The Trojans finished the game with 15 steals and the bench scoring 45 points. As a whole, the team finished the game with 44 rebounds, with the majority of them coming from the offense.

“I thought our defensive intensity created more open looks for us,” Gottlieb said.

Yakiya Milton was a big part of that with her eight rebounds with four blocks in 10 minutes of play. One of the four blocks came when she stopped a Mustang drive to the basket and protected the rim. Something that Gottlieb preached during practice, she said.

“I try to capitalize on any opportunity I’m given,” Milton said. “I’m trying to play with as much energy and intensity as I can.”

As the Trojans look ahead to a stretch of Big 10 games against Nebraska and UCLA, Gottlieb doesn’t see a starting five. She sees the strengths of her team to be how deep their roster is.

“No one played 30 minutes at all and maybe that’s a little bit atypical, but we do believe that we can play different kinds of lineups, different people who have different skill sets, different looks,” she said.

And with the help of Jones, who has been to the Final Four with UCLA and has played in big conference games, she knows the team will feed off her energy and play with confidence

“I mean, she was wearing the wrong colors or the other colors,” Gottlieb quipped. “But you know, she’s been in situations and that experience is premium.”

“She’s going to bring that confidence and swagger no matter what,” she added.

Dec. 18 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new regulations on Thursday that restrict the ability for transgender minors to access gender-affirming healthcare.

The regulations work to “carry out President Trump’s executive order directing HHS to end the practice of sex-rejecting procedures on children that expose young people to irreversible harm,” a press release said.

The new rules will ban hospitals from “performing sex-rejecting procedures on children under age 18 as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs.”

“These actions will ensure that the federal government in no way funds directly gender transition procedures on minors and also does not fund facilities that perform these procedures,” a department official told reporters Thursday.

The department said what it calls “sex-rejecting procedures” on children, including puberty blockers, hormones and surgery, “expose them to irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other department officials will offer details about the moves later Thursday.

Gender-affirming care is a holistic approach to treating gender-dysphoria and is supported by every major medical association as treatment for both adults and children.

It includes a range of therapies, from psychological and behavioral to medical interventions, with surgeries for minors being exceedingly rare.

The medical practice, however, has been a target for conservatives for years amid a larger campaign that civil rights organizations see as a threat to the rights of LGBTQ Americans.

St. Louis pediatrician Dr. Kenneth Haller called HHS’ actions “anti-science” during a Human Rights Campaign press briefing. He pointed out that these efforts still allow the treatments for children with other conditions that affect hormone production.

Haller said that as long as the condition doesn’t change a child’s gender, “these people don’t have a problem with [prescribing hormones]. That same care for kids who are transgender is what they say is wrong. There’s no science behind it.”

HHS said the Food and Drug Administration would send warning letters to manufacturers and sellers of breast binders for minors alleging they are doing illegal marketing, the department official said.

“Illegal marketing of these products for children is alarming, and the FDA will take further enforcement action such as import alerts, seizures, and injunctions if it continues,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said in a statement.

The Human Rights Campaign said these rules infringe on the rights of families.

“Families deserve the freedom to go to the doctor and get the care that they need and to have agency over the health and wellbeing of their children,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a statement. “But these proposed actions would put [President] Donald Trump and RFK Jr. in those doctor’s offices, ripping healthcare decisions from the hands of families and putting it in the grips of the anti-LGBTQ+ fringe.”

And Advocates for Trans Equality told UPI in an emailed statement that are a “discriminatory attack” that lacks credible medical or financial basis.

“These sets of rules mark a serious escalation in this administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle healthcare programs and services for trans youth,” Fiadh McKenna, A4TE senior staff attorney, said in the statement.

“Targeting healthcare for trans people is unlawful and discriminatory; no one should be denied healthcare because of who they are.”

The new CMS rules will be finalized after a 60-day comment period on the Federal Register, the department official said.

Trump has issued several executive orders against transgender people. In May, the Pentagon began removing transgender service members from the military. In March, the Department of Veterans Affairs began phasing out medical treatments for gender dysphoria. In February, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports. In January, Trump signed an executive order that restricts gender-affirming care for minors.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors, building on broader Trump administration restrictions on transgender Americans.

The sweeping proposals — the most significant moves this administration has taken so far to restrict the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions for transgender children — include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children and prohibiting federal Medicaid dollars from being used to fund such procedures.

“This is not medicine, it is malpractice,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said of gender-affirming procedures on children in a news conference on Thursday. “Sex-rejecting procedures rob children of their futures.”

Kennedy also announced Thursday that the HHS Office of Civil Rights will propose a rule excluding gender dysphoria from the definition of a disability.

In a related move, the Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to a dozen companies that market chest-binding vests and other equipment used by people with gender dysphoria. Manufacturers include GenderBender LLC of Carson, California and TomboyX of Seattle. The FDA letters state that chest binders can only be legally marketed for FDA-approved medical uses, such as recovery after mastectomy surgery.

Proposed rules would threaten youth gender-affirming care in states where it remains legal

Medicaid programs in slightly less than half of states currently cover gender-affirming care. At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care. The Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding Tennessee’s ban means most other state laws are likely to remain in place.

Thursday’s announcements would imperil access in nearly two dozen states where drug treatments and surgical procedures remain legal and funded by Medicaid, which includes federal and state dollars.

The proposals announced by Kennedy and his deputies are not final or legally binding. The federal government must go through a lengthy rulemaking process, including periods of public comment and document rewrites, before the restrictions becoming permanent. They are also likely to face legal challenges.

But the proposed rules will likely further intimidate health care providers from offering gender-affirming care to children and many hospitals have already ceased such care in anticipation of federal action.

Nearly all U.S. hospitals participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the federal government’s largest health plans that cover seniors, the disabled and low-income Americans. Losing access to those payments would imperil most U.S. hospitals and medical providers.

The same funding restrictions would apply to a smaller health program when it comes to care for people under the age of 19, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to a federal notice posted Thursday morning.

Moves contradict advice from medical organizations and transgender advocates

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on Thursday called transgender treatments “a Band-Aid on a much deeper pathology,” and suggested children with gender dysphoria are “confused, lost and need help.”

Polling shows many Americans agree with the administration’s view of the issue. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey conducted earlier this year found that about half of U.S. adults approved of how Trump was handling transgender issues.

Chloe Cole, a conservative activist known for speaking about her gender-transition reversal, spoke at the news conference to express appreciation. She said cries for help from her and others in her situation, “have finally been heard.”

But the approach contradicts the recommendations of most major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, which has urged states not to restrict care for gender dysphoria.

Advocates for transgender children strongly refuted the administration’s claims about gender-affirming care and said Thursday’s moves would put lives at risk.

“In an effort to strongarm hospitals into participating in the administration’s anti-LGBTQ agenda, the Trump Administration is forcing health care systems to choose between providing lifesaving care for LGBTQ+ young people and accepting crucial federal funding,” Dr. Jamila Perritt, a Washington-based OB/GYN and president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said in a statement. “This is a lose-lose situation where lives are inevitably on the line. “

Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, senior vice president at The Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization for LBGTQ+ youth, called the changes a “one-size-fits-all mandate from the federal government” on a decision that should be between a doctor and patient.

“The multitude of efforts we are seeing from federal legislators to strip transgender and nonbinary youth of the health care they need is deeply troubling,” he said.

Actions build on a larger effort to restrict transgender rights

The announcements build on a wave of actions President Trump, his administration and Republicans in Congress have taken to target the rights of transgender people nationwide.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order that declared the federal government would recognize only two immutable sexes: male and female. He also has signed orders aimed at cutting off federal support for gender transitions for people under age 19 and barring transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

On Wednesday, a bill that would open transgender health care providers to prison time if they treat people under the age of 18 passed the U.S. House and heads to the Senate. Another bill under consideration in the House on Thursday aims to ban Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care for children.

Young people who persistently identify as a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth are first evaluated by a team of professionals. Some may try a social transition, involving changing a hairstyle or pronouns. Some may later also receive hormone-blocking drugs that delay puberty, followed by testosterone or estrogen to bring about the desired physical changes in patients. Surgery is rare for minors.

Swenson, Perrone and Shastri write for the Associated Press. Shastri reported from Milwaukee. AP writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report.

NEW YORK — For one Wisconsin couple, the loss of government-sponsored health subsidies next year means choosing a lower-quality insurance plan with a higher deductible. For a Michigan family, it means going without insurance altogether.

For a single mom in Nevada, the spiking costs mean fewer Christmas gifts this year. She is stretching her budget already while she waits to see if the Republican-led Congress will act.

Less than three weeks remain until the expiration of COVID-era enhanced tax credits that have helped millions of Americans pay their monthly fees for Affordable Care Act coverage for the last four years.

The Senate on Thursday rejected two proposals to address the problem, and an emerging healthcare package from House Republicans does not include an extension, all but guaranteeing that many Americans will see much higher insurance costs in 2026.

Here are a few of their stories.

Spending more for less

Chad Bruns comes from a family of savers. That came in handy when the 58-year-old military veteran had to leave his firefighting career early because of arm and back injuries incurred on the job.

He and his wife, Kelley, 60, both retirees, cut their own firewood to reduce their electricity costs in their home in Sawyer County, Wis. They rarely eat out and say they buy groceries only when they are on sale.

But to the extent that they have always been frugal, they will be forced to be even more so now, Bruns said. That is because their coverage under the health law enacted under former President Obama is, because of congressional inaction, getting more expensive — and for worse coverage.

This year, the Brunses were paying $2 per month for a top-tier gold-level plan with less than a $4,000 deductible. Their income was low enough to help them qualify for a lot of financial assistance.

But in 2026, that same plan is rising to an unattainable $1,600 per month, forcing them to downgrade to a bronze plan with a $15,000 deductible.

Kelley Bruns said she is concerned that if something happens to their health in the next year, they could go bankrupt. While their monthly fees are low at about $25, their new out-of-pocket maximum at $21,000 amounts to nearly half their joint income.

“We have to pray that we don’t have to have surgery or don’t have to have some medical procedure done that we’re not aware of,” she said. “It would be very devastating.”

Forgoing insurance

Dave Roof’s family of four has been on ACA insurance since the program started in 2014. Back then, the accessibility of insurance on the marketplace helped him feel comfortable taking the leap to start a small music production and performance company in his hometown of Grand Blanc, Mich. His wife, Kristin, is also self-employed as a top seller on Etsy.

Their coverage has worked for them so far, even when emergencies come up, such as an ATV accident their 21-year-old daughter had last year.

But now, with the expiration of Obamacare subsidies that kept their premiums down, the 53-year-old Roof said their $500-per-month insurance plan is jumping to at least $700 a month, along with spiking deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.

With their joint income of about $75,000 a year, that increase is not manageable, he said. So, they are planning to go without health insurance next year, paying cash for prescriptions, checkups and anything else that arises.

Roof said his family is already living cheaply and has not taken a vacation together since 2021. As it is, they do not save money or add it to their retirement accounts. So even though forgoing insurance is stressful, it is what they must do.

“The fear and anxiety that it’s going to put on my wife and I is really hard to measure,” Roof said. “But we can’t pay for what we can’t pay for.”

Single mom’s straining budget

If you ask Katelin Provost, the American middle class has gone from experiencing a squeeze to a “full suffocation.”

The 37-year-old social worker in Henderson, Nev., counts herself in that category. As a single mom, she already keeps a tight budget to cover housing, groceries and daycare for her 4-year-old daughter.

Next year, that is going to be even tougher.

The monthly fee on her plan is going up from $85 to nearly $750. She decided she is going to pay that higher cost for January and reevaluate afterward, depending on whether lawmakers extend the subsidies, which as of now appears unlikely. She hopes they will.

If Congress does not act, she will drop herself off the health insurance and keep it only for her daughter because she cannot afford the higher fee for the two of them over the long term.

The strain of one month alone is enough to have an impact.

“I’m going to have to reprioritize the next couple of months to rebalance that budget,” Provost said. “Christmas will be much smaller.”

Swenson writes for the Associated Press.

KENNER, La. — Vilma Cruz, a mother of two, had just arrived at her newly leased Louisiana home this week when federal agents surrounded her vehicle in the driveway. She had just enough time to call her oldest son before they smashed the passenger window and detained her.

The 38-year-old Honduran house painter was swept up in an immigration crackdown that has largely targeted Kenner, a Latino enclave just outside New Orleans, where some parents at risk of deportation had rushed to arrange emergency custody plans for their children in case they were arrested.

Federal agents have made more than 250 arrests this month across southeast Louisiana, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the latest in a series of enforcement operations that have also unfolded in Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte, N.C. In some homes, the arrests have taken away parents who were caretakers and breadwinners, leaving some teenagers to grow up fast and fill in at home for absent mothers and fathers.

Cruz’s detention forced her son, Jonathan Escalante, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen who recently finished high school, to care for his 9-year-old sister, who has a physical disability. Escalante is now trying to access his mother’s bank account, locate his sister’s medical records and doctors, and figure out how to pay bills in his mother’s name.

“Honestly I’m not ready, having to take care of all of these responsibilities,” Escalante told the Associated Press. “But I’m willing to take them on if I have to. And I’m just praying that I get my mom back.”

Fearful families made emergency custody plans

The crackdown dubbed “Catahoula Crunch” has a goal of 5,000 arrests. DHS has said it is targeting violent offenders but has released few details on whom it is arresting. Records reviewed by AP found that the majority of those detained in the first two days of the effort had no criminal histories.

This week, Louisiana Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, a Republican, became the first state official to break with his party over the operations. He criticized them for undermining the regional economy by triggering labor shortages because even immigrants with valid work permits have stayed home out of fear.

“So I think there needs to be some clarity of what’s the plan,” Nungesser said. “Are they going to take every person, regardless if they got kids, and they’re going to leave the kids behind?”

DHS said Cruz locked herself in the car and refused to lower the window and exit the vehicle as ordered, which forced agents to break the window to unlock the door. She is being held in federal custody pending removal proceedings, officials said.

Immigrant rights groups say the operation is applying a dragnet approach to racially profile Latino communities.

In the weeks before the crackdown began, dozens of families without legal status sought to make emergency custody arrangements with relatives, aided by pro bono legal professionals at events organized by advocacy groups in Kenner and throughout the New Orleans region.

“Children are going to school unsure whether their parents will be home at the end of the day,” Raiza Pitre, a member of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana, told a city council meeting Wednesday in Jefferson Parish, which includes Kenner.

Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said he receives dozens of calls daily from Louisiana families worried about being separated from their children. His organization is helping Escalante navigate life without his mother, and he wants to prepare her son for the worst.

“He thinks she’ll be home in a couple of days, but it could be weeks or months, or she could be deported,” Proaño said.

Police chief praises enforcement crackdown

Cruz’s family was supposed to move into their new home next month. She leased it so that her son could finally sleep in his own room.

Kenner resident Kristi Rogers watched masked agents detain Cruz, a soon-to-be neighbor whom she had not yet met. Rogers said her heart went out to Cruz, and she wondered why she was targeted.

“I’m for them trying to clean up the criminals in our area, but I’m hoping that’s all they are detaining and deporting — the criminals,” Rogers said.

Jefferson and Orleans Parish court records did not reveal any criminal history for Cruz, and her son said she had a clean record.

In conservative Kenner, where Latinos make up about a third of residents and President Trump won the last three presidential elections, Police Chief Keith Conley said last week that the federal immigration operation is a “prayer answered.”

As evidence of violence committed by immigrants in his city, Conley shared around a dozen press releases issued since 2022 documenting crimes in which the suspect was identified as being in the U.S. illegally, including sex offenses, a killing, gang activity and shootings. He said residents were also at risk from immigrant drivers who are unlicensed and uninsured.

“I think that missions like this, by the government, are welcome because it’s going to change the landscape of the city and make improvements,” Conley said.

Teenagers try to protect younger siblings

Jose Reyes, a Honduran construction worker and landscaper whose family says he has lived in the U.S. for 16 years, stayed home for weeks to avoid federal agents. But the father of four had to pay rent, so last week he drove to the bank around the corner.

Unmarked vehicles began following Reyes and pulled up alongside his car as he parked in front of his house in Kenner. A video reviewed by AP showed several agents leaping out and removing Reyes from his car as his sobbing daughters screamed for mercy.

“We were begging that they let him go,” said his eldest daughter, 19-year-old Heylin Leonor Reyes. “He’s the one who provides for food, pays bills, pays the rent. We were begging them because they’re leaving a family totally in the dark, trying to figure out what to do, figuring out where to get money to get by.”

Asked about the arrest, DHS said Jose Reyes committed an unspecified felony and had previously been deported from the U.S. The agency did not elaborate.

His daughter, who works at a local restaurant, said her salary is not enough to keep a roof over the heads of her three younger siblings, two of whom she says were born in the U.S. and are American citizens. Her mother is caring for the youngest, a 4-year-old, who watched agents grab her father from the doorway.

Reyes said she is also seeking a lawyer for her father’s case. But they need to locate him first.

“We were not given that information,” Reyes said. “We were given absolutely nothing.”

Reyes has tried to shield her siblings from the stress surrounding their father’s detention.

Escalante has not yet told his sister about their mother’s arrest, hoping Cruz can be released before he has to explain her absence.

“I’m technically the adult of the house now,” he said. “I have to make these hard choices.”

Brook and Cline write for the Associated Press. Cline reported from Baton Rouge, La.

Less than five years ago, the Golden Globes were hanging by a thread.

In the wake of a Times investigation that exposed the group’s self-dealing and ethical lapses and a complete lack of Black representation among its membership, NBC pulled the ceremony off the air as Netflix and Amazon Studios and more than 100 publicity agencies cut ties with the embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.

It got so bad that Tom Cruise sent back his three Golden Globes to the HFPA in protest, an act not quite on the level of Sean Penn’s 2022 threat to smelt his Oscars, though it grabbed headlines all the same.

But the Golden Globes have returned from the brink. The awards show, now run by Penske Media Eldridge, owned by Jay Penske and Todd Boehly, announced its latest slate of film and television nominations Monday. And the coverage, led by trade publications owned by Penske, has contained little to no mention of the show’s troubled past — or the controversies that continue to swirl around the ceremony, which will again air in January on CBS as part of a five-year broadcast deal signed in 2024.

So, yes, for all intents and purposes, the Golden Globes are back. But regarding ethical practices, today’s for-profit Globes may well be worse than ever, crossing the line in ways that are more egregious than the shady maneuverings that put the awards on life support not so long ago.

As part of the show’s rehabilitation, the Globes have expanded their voting pool to 300 people, including Black voters. Fifty of the original HFPA members were grandfathered into the group and offered an annual salary of $75,000. The Globes terminated that policy earlier this year, calling the move “an acknowledgment that continuing to pay members could add to a perception of bias in voting.”

It’s hard not to be skeptical of such principled reasoning in light of more recent events. In May, the Globes announced a new category for podcasts. A shortlist of 25 followed in October, selected by audio analytics company Luminate, which, surprise, is also owned by Penske Media.

The eligible titles ranged from Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” and Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” to political programs like “Pod Save America.” Conservative commentators Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelly, Ben Shapiro, Theo Von and Candace Owens all made the shortlist. (Surprisingly, “New Heights,” the popular podcast hosted by Jason Kelce and his brother Travis, the all-pro Kansas City Chiefs tight end engaged to singer Taylor Swift, was omitted. If the goal in creating the new award was to find a way to coax Swift into attending the ceremony, somebody forgot to save her a seat.)

But the real motivation behind the podcast category became apparent soon afterward: money. Per the Ankler, Penske-owned trade publication Variety had its sales team pitch nominated podcasts an array of paid marketing partnerships, including a $25,000 buy to become a Podcasting FYC Fest supporting partner and a $75,000 deal for the podcaster to be given the Variety Creative Impact Award in Podcasting.

With those prices, no wonder Luminate seems to have made popularity — and thus financial resources — a core criterion for eligibility. Plus, there was the hope that some of the 25 shortlisted shows would buy FYC ads in Variety and Penske’s other trade publications, the Hollywood Reporter and Deadline, all of which rely on FYC dollars to keep the lights on.

How many bit? Shapiro is one prominent name, buying ads on Deadline and partnering with awards prediction website Gold Derby (yes, another Penske property) in a paid video interview with his podcast team. (The stumping failed to pay off in the end: The final six nominees in the category were “Armchair Expert,” “Call Her Daddy,” “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” “The Mel Robbins Podcast,” “SmartLess” and “Up First.”)

“It’s just a money grab,” says a veteran awards consultant, who asked not be identified in order to protect industry relationships. “Everybody used to knock the Globes, but they were just goofy. … This is next level.”

You want next level? How about Penske offering three pairs of Golden Globes tickets for $70,000 each via a “concierge gift guide” in its luxury lifestyle magazine Robb Report? After the New York Post reported these shenanigans, the offer disappeared on the publication’s website.

Privately, there has been pushback. Publicly, not so much. We live in a culture at large where we’ve come to accept flagrant corruption as the norm, and Penske’s Globes are just another example, skating through our collective numbness.

The Golden Globes have long been excused for their scandals and idiosyncratic membership and, of course, mocked for their irrelevance. Ricky Gervais dismissed them as “worthless,” calling the award “a bit of metal that some nice old confused journalists wanted to give you in person so they could meet you and have a selfie with you.”

The membership has turned over, but the trophy’s value is still inconsequential.

Yet the ceremony keeps on chugging along, remaining, in the view of filmmakers behind the sort of grown-up movie fare that’s becoming an increasingly endangered species, an essential marketing platform. The January ceremony brought in 9.3 million viewers — not “Sunday Night Football” numbers, but not shabby in this fragmented media landscape.

For one night, the thinking goes, movies like “Marty Supreme,” “Hamnet” and “Sentimental Value” (among this year’s most-rewarded contenders) are celebrated and, perhaps, discovered. Studios still platform their films’ expansion into more theaters on the weekend after the Globes ceremony. If you award it, the thinking goes, people will come.

We all want these movies to continue to be made. No doubt a fair number of moviegoers bought a ticket to see the Brazilian political drama “I’m Still Here” after its lead Fernanda Torres won a Globe earlier this year.

But adding categories for podcast and, two years ago, “cinematic and box office achievement” only squeezes the amount of time that the show can spotlight the nominated films and their actors.

There’s a saying, first coined by Maya Angelou, that’s been repopularized in recent years: “If someone shows you who they are, believe them.” The same could be said of awards shows.

The Golden Globes may be here to stay. But let’s stop pretending they’re any better than they were before the last scandal.