![\"JJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/HZ4C4C4XONGT3KQ7RQPMAV2AQM.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAs a 22-year-old college student with cerebral palsy, I asked Byron Donalds and David Jolly about their platforms for Floridians with disabilities. I drive my wheelchair with head controls, I type with my nose, I speak through a communication app on my iPad and I spent 18 years on Florida\u2019s waitlist for the iBudget Medicaid waiver, the program that lets people like me live at home instead of being warehoused in institutions. More than 15,000 Floridians are still stuck on that waitlist today.<\/p>\n
When I met Byron Donalds and told him I waited 18 years, he asked me to repeat how long. Fair enough \u2014 most people need to hear that number twice. He told me I deserved the waiver, but then immediately pivoted to fraud, waste and abuse which left me wondering whether he believes some nationwide alert goes out announcing that a promising new scam has dropped, at which point thousands of wheelchairs simultaneously roll up to government offices clutching fraudulent applications. For the record, there\u2019s no group text. There isn\u2019t even accessible parking at most places.<\/p>\n
But you know what? He\u2019s right. There is fraud, waste and abuse in Medicaid. Since the congressman seems so passionate about it, I decided to lead his crackdown. Effective immediately, I\u2019m Florida\u2019s newest self-appointed Medicaid Fraud Inspector and here\u2019s the findings from my first month on the job.<\/p>\n
Case File Number 1: Me. In the interest of transparency I investigated myself first. Subject waited 18 years for basic disability services. I audited every year of the wait and found the only thing stolen was my childhood. Case closed.<\/p>\n
Case File Number 2: The waitlist. I investigated all 15,000-plus Floridians currently waiting for services. The shocking discovery: Not one of them has managed to defraud a program they\u2019re not allowed into. Airtight alibi.<\/p>\n
Case File Number 3: Hope Florida. Now we\u2019re cooking. A leaked grand jury report found $10 million owed to Florida\u2019s Medicaid program was funneled to Governor DeSantis\u2019 wife\u2019s pet project and from there to political committees and not one dime reached the sick and needy children it was meant for. Naturally I was excited to tell Byron Donalds I\u2019d found millions in missing Medicaid money he could investigate. Then I found out he\u2019d already ruled out looking into it. Now I\u2019ve only been on the job a month, but even I know you shouldn\u2019t end an investigation just because the prime suspects are from your own party.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/Orlando Sentinel<\/p>\n
JJ Holmes, 17, outside his family’s Longwood home in a 2021 file photo. JJ has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair and an iPad that he types with his nose to communicate.
\n(Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
Case File Number 4: Columbia\/HCA. Jackpot! The hospital giant paid $1.7 billion in what was then the largest Medicaid fraud settlement in American history. At the time, the company was run by Rick Scott, whom Florida then elected governor, then senator and who\u2019s now endorsed Byron Donalds. So when the congressman went looking for Medicaid fraud he didn\u2019t need to look at people in wheelchairs, he could\u2019ve checked his own endorsement list. The call was coming from inside the campaign.<\/p>\n
Which brings me to the other guy. Talking to David Jolly felt less like meeting a politician and more like watching one of those TikTok couples who finish each other\u2019s sentences and make everyone else vaguely uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d say, \u201cI waited 18 years for services.\u201d He\u2019d say, \u201cThe last time Florida cleared the waitlist was when Jeb Bush was governor.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019d say, \u201cYou know what sucks?\u201d He\u2019d say, \u201cDo you mean managed care companies that cut your care to boost their profits?\u201d<\/p>\n
Annoyingly, yes. That was exactly what I meant.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d say, \u201cFlorida is 49th in the nation for disability services\u2026\u201d He\u2019d say, \u201c\u2026in funding the iBudget waiver.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a fraud investigator, I found this suspicious and briefly considered opening a file on him. No politician usually knows this much about disability policy voluntarily.<\/p>\n
My preliminary conclusion is that fraud, waste and abuse in Medicaid is real. It just isn\u2019t committed by Floridians with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome or autism. The people stealing from Medicaid don\u2019t use wheelchairs, they use LLCs. Congressman Donalds was searching the wrong end of the income ladder, which as an investigator I\u2019d call a rookie mistake, except he\u2019s been on a government payroll for a decade.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s my final report. I don\u2019t need a governor who sees 15,000 people waiting for disability services and calls it a list of suspects. I need one who investigates why we waited.<\/p>\n
One candidate wanted to talk about fraud, waste and abuse. The other wanted to talk about us. On Nov. 3, I\u2019m voting for David Jolly.<\/p>\n
JJ Holmes is a 22-year-old college student and disability advocate from Longwood, and a 2025 Central Floridian of the Year.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a 22-year-old college student with cerebral palsy, I asked Byron Donalds and David Jolly about their platforms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[483,482,139,141,140,109,76410],"class_list":["post-405349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-commentary","tag-opinion","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}