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Experts said they know of no states that routinely audit insurance companies over denying health care claims.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Feb. 18 he wants to make his state the first to audit based on high rates of claim denials and do “corrective action” enforced through fines. 

The Wisconsin insurance commissioner’s office and experts from the KFF health policy nonprofit and Georgetown University said they know of no states using claim denial rates to trigger audits.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the national state auditors association said they do not track whether states do such auditing.

ProPublica reported in 2023 it surveyed every state’s insurance agency and found only 45 enforcement actions since 2018 involving denials that violated coverage mandates.

Forty-five percent of U.S. adults surveyed in 2023 said they were billed in the past year for a medical service they thought should have been free or covered by their insurance.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• WISN-TV: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is delivering his budget address
• State of Wisconsin: Budget in Brief 2025-27
• Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers communications director Britt Cudaback: Email, Feb. 19, 2025
• KFF director of Program on Patient and Consumer Protection Kaye Pestaina: Email, Feb. 23, 2025
• JoAnn Volk, founder of Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms: Email, Feb. 24, 2025
• National Association of Insurance Commissioners: Email, Feb. 21, 2025
• National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers: Email, Feb. 20, 2025
• ProPublica: Health Insurers Have Been Breaking State Laws for Years
• The Commonwealth Fund: Unforeseen Health Care Bills and Coverage Denials by Health Insurers in the U.S.

Do states routinely audit insurers for denying health care claims? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Police ballistic markers stand near a stroller and a child’s chair at a crime scene in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The number of homicides across the United States declined sharply in 2024, according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s latest crime trends report. Still, New York City is one of the major cities with a higher number of homicides in 2024 compared with pre-pandemic levels. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The number of homicides across the United States declined by 16% in 2024, continuing a recent downward trajectory, according to the latest crime trends report from the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank.

Homicides spiked during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and crime became a central focus of President Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign. Trump insisted that FBI crime data showing declines was “fake” and claimed that crime was “through the roof.” The second Trump administration is expected to adopt a tough-on-crime approach.

State legislatures nationwide also are expected to prioritize a variety of criminal justice measures this year, including prison oversight, illegal immigration, retail theft and policing standards and procedures. Polls show most Americans see crime as a significant problem, though fewer than in recent years.

The Council on Criminal Justice, known as CCJ, gathers data from individual law enforcement agencies for its biannual crime trends reports, meaning the data is more recent than the FBI’s annual report. Both the think tank’s and the FBI’s reports, however, show a similar turnaround in violent crime.

In 2023, criminal homicide — which the FBI defines as murder or non-negligent manslaughter — was down by 11.6% from the previous year. It was the largest single-year decline in two decades, according to the FBI’s annual crime report published last year.

The CCJ report shows that the downward trend appears to be continuing, with homicides in 2024 dropping by 16% compared with 2023. That drop equates to 631 fewer homicides in the 29 cities that provided data for the category, according to the council’s report.

If this decrease holds as more jurisdictions report their data to the FBI later this year, 2024 would rank among the largest single-year homicide drops since at least 1960, the start of modern record-keeping, according to the report.

A political issue

Despite the recent decline in homicides, crime remains a politically salient issue. A majority of Americans — 56% — believe that national crime has increased or consider it an “extremely” or “very” serious problem. But public concern about crime has lessened over the past year, according to Gallup’s annual crime survey.

Perceptions of crime are heavily influenced by political affiliation. The survey found that 60% of Democrats believe crime has decreased over the past year, whereas 90% of Republicans think it has increased.

Some crime experts say that media reports, political messaging and viral social media posts may exaggerate Americans’ worries about disorder, making crimes such as shoplifting and public drug use appear more prevalent than they actually are. Still, some individual cities and neighborhoods may be experiencing higher crime rates, which could further explain these concerns.

“We still have problems with crime, still have problems in the criminal justice system, and even though the crime rates are improving, we should not take our focus off crime and criminal justice,” said Ernesto Lopez, the report’s co-author and a senior research specialist with the council, in an interview with Stateline.

The council analyzed crime trends in 40 U.S. cities, although not all cities had data available for every type of offense.

Among the cities studied, 22 saw a decline in homicides last year, with Chandler, Arizona, and Little Rock, Arkansas, recording the largest decreases at 50% and 43%, respectively. Six cities experienced increases, with Colorado Springs, Colorado, leading the way with a 56% jump.

When comparing homicide rates between 2019 and 2024, the council’s study sample saw a 6% decline, largely driven by cities with traditionally high homicide rates, including Baltimore and St. Louis.

Homicides are still above pre-pandemic levels in some cities, including New York City and Washington, D.C. In New York City, for example, there were 382 homicides in 2024 compared with 319 in 2019. In Washington, D.C., there were 187 homicides in 2024 and 166 in 2019.

Other crimes

The CCJ report also examined trends in other violent and property crimes, including gun assault, carjacking, motor vehicle theft and drug offenses. Most of these offenses were lower in 2024 than in 2023, with shoplifting being the only exception, showing a 14% increase. Shoplifting also was 1% higher in 2024 compared with 2019.

Researchers were surprised that shoplifting rates increased last year despite retailers taking more measures to combat it, such as locking up merchandise behind glass. Some experts say that the rise may reflect improved reporting efforts rather than an actual spike in theft.

Last year, state legislatures placed a strong emphasis on tackling retail theft, and this momentum is likely to continue into this year, with Maryland lawmakers already considering a bill aimed at addressing large-scale organized retail theft.

From 2023 to 2024, incidents of robbery dropped by 10%, carjackings fell by 32%, and motor vehicle theft decreased by 24%.

Violent crimes such as sexual assault, domestic violence and robbery are now below pre-pandemic levels, but aggravated assaults, gun assaults and carjackings remain higher than in 2019, according to the report.

Property crime trends over the past five years varied. Residential burglaries and larcenies decreased, while nonresidential burglaries increased. Motor vehicle thefts rose by 53%, and drug offenses fell by 28%.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

President-Elect Donald Trump walks to the stage at his victory rally at the Capital One Arena on Jan. 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Trump will be sworn in as the 47th U.S. president on January 20. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump rallied a packed arena Sunday in the nation’s capital ahead of his inauguration Monday, heralding an era of “the Trump effect” and vowing to “act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country.”

Shortly after his swearing-in, Trump is expected to issue pardons for rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, who he said are “J6 hostages.” Trump also plans a barrage of executive orders curtailing immigration and undoing President Joe Biden’s energy policies.

The victory rally, streamed live on C-SPAN from the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., featured live music from Kid Rock, Lee Greenwood and, at the conclusion, a surreal performance of the 1978 disco hit “YMCA” by the Village People, as Trump danced along with them. Trump often played the song at his campaign rallies.

Assorted incoming administration officials and celebrities delivered speeches that railed against transgender people, DEI initiatives and immigration at the U.S. southern border. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance was not among the speakers.

Trump spoke for just over an hour, repeating his campaign trail themes about fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter, SpaceX rockets, an “invasion” of migrants and “transgender insanity.”

He also promised to declassify records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, and claimed that Apple CEO Tim Cook told him Sunday about “a massive investment in the United States because of our big election win.”

“I’m thrilled to be back with so many friends, supporters and true American patriots on the eve of taking back our country,” Trump told a cheering crowd in the arena, which has a capacity of about 20,000.

On Monday it will also host Trump supporters who held tickets to sit in the audience at the Capitol before the ceremony was moved inside due to forecasts of low temperatures, as well as an inauguration parade on Monday afternoon.

Trump touted the return Sunday of the popular app TikTok and the “epic ceasefire agreement” between Israel and Hamas.

The incoming president said war in the Middle East would not have happened had the 2020 election not been “rigged” — a false claim he’s repeated over the last four years.

Trump and Vance will be sworn in Monday indoors in the Capitol rotunda. The four-year term for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris ends at noon, as stipulated in the Constitution’s 20th Amendment.

Emergency declaration

Among the executive orders Trump plans will be an emergency declaration on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

“You’re going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy, lots of them,” he told rallygoers. “By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt.”

Trump later told the crowd: “Somebody said yesterday, ‘Sir, don’t sign so many in one day. Let’s do it over a period of weeks.’ I said, ‘Like hell we’re going to do it over weeks.’”

Also on his list of day-one executive orders is extending the deadline for TikTok to find a new owner, a mandate set forth in a bipartisan law last year. Without an extension, companies that distribute or maintain TikTok will face fines up to $5,000 per user on the popular video platform app.

The order will “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform hours ahead of the rally.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was expected to sit on the dais Monday during Trump’s inauguration, but seating arrangements for the indoor ceremony remained unclear.

Trump invited tech billionaire Elon Musk to the stage with him Sunday. The mogul he’s tasked with making recommendations to cut trillions in federal spending told the crowd “we’re looking forward to making a lot of changes.”

Speakers vilify ‘radical left,’ Harris

A parade of speakers introduced the president-elect. Trump’s son Eric, standing alongside his wife Lara and their two children, declared “The bullsh-t ends right now.”

Stephen Miller, incoming White House deputy chief of staff for policy, touted “ending the border invasion, sending the illegals home and taking America back,” and ridding children’s playgrounds of “piles of needles.”

Miller denied the very existence of transgender people.

“We’re not going to let the radical left indoctrinate our children into believing there’s 435 genders because President Trump knows there are men and there are women, and it is not up to you whether you’re a man or a woman. That’s a decision that’s made by God, and it can’t be changed,” Miller said.

There are an estimated 2 million transgender people in the U.S., according to the Human Rights Campaign. Gender dysphoria — defined as psychological distress resulting from incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and current gender identity — is widely recognized by the medical community. Transgender youth experience disparate health outcomes and increased stigmatization and suicidal behavior, according to a 2024 report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Right-wing media personality Megyn Kelly delivered remarks during which for several minutes she slammed singer and actress Jennifer Lopez and media magnate Oprah Winfrey for their support of Harris during the 2024 election.

“But of course the fakest person involved on that side of the aisle was the woman at the top, Kamala Harris herself,” Kelly said.

The former Fox News host said the vice president used a “fake Jamaican accent, her fake Eastern European accent, her fake Spanish accent. It was like spending the day at Joe Biden’s southern border nonstop, right?”

Similar criticisms were made repeatedly by Republicans during the campaign and a Fox News reporter in September pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about Harris’ accent. “The question is just insane,” said Jean-Pierre, saying Americans cared more about the economy, health care and lowering costs, HuffPost reported.

Jab at media

The rally kicked off with a prayer from a duo dubbed “Girls Gone Bible” followed moments later by a musical set from Kid Rock.

In a video message to his “rock ‘n roll patriots,” Trump told the crowd “Let’s make America rock again” as Kid Rock launched into his new song “We the People” that featured the chorus line “Let’s Go Brandon.” “Brandon” was the name used by Trump supporters to insult Biden.

While performing his 1999 hit “Bawitdaba,” Kid Rock ad-libbed “The mainstream media can suck my” — without finishing the sentence.

Prior to the rally, Trump and Vance participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. They also visited three graves of servicemembers who were killed in the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Several of Trump’s Cabinet nominees attended the ceremony, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who’s been tapped as secretary of state; Fox News TV host Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense; and current and former U.S. representatives Elise Stefanik and Tulsi Gabbard, nominees for ambassador to the United Nations and director of national intelligence.