Sex work vs. the soul, instant upstate NY health crisis and other commentary

The new documentary “I Slept with 100 Men in One Day” “interrogates sex work” and shows that “selling the body means leaving it, if you want to survive,” argues The Free Press’ River Page.“In an internet awash in pornography,” it “takes novelty to stand out,” so OnlyFans star Lily Phillips planned “to have sex with 100 dudes in a single day” (the doc’s main subject).

“After the 101 deeds are done — yes, one more than her original goal — Lily emerges from the shower, teary-eyed and exhausted.She shows the filmmakers the room.

The cameraman gags from the smell.At first, she assures them that everything has gone well, but the facade quickly crumbles.” “What Lily Phillips just put herself through is not labor.

It’s self-abuse.”“A billion-dollar Medicare windfall for upstate hospitals has turned into a crisis for upstate health insurers that’s threatening to disrupt coverage for millions of New Yorkers,” fumes the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond.The problem: A 20%-plus hike in the Medicare Wage Index for upstate New York “generated an extra billion dollars in revenue” for hospitals but “created a financial crunch for Medicare Advantage plans,” which got no offsetting increase in federal funding.

Absent more funds, each plan “will have to consider scaling back its Medicare Advantage plans, narrowing its provider networks, reducing or eliminating optional benefits.” And upstate Medicare Advantage customers “will face the likelihood of fewer choices and higher costs” owing to a “rate boost for hospitals that officials approved without thinking through the consequences.” A ProPublica reporter “contacted the West Point public affairs office to inquire about [Defense Secretary-designate Pete] Hegseth’s claim that he was accepted there” and was told, “in no uncertain terms, that Hegseth had never even applied there,” notes Reason’s Robby Soave.But after Hegseth “set the record straight by p...