Ozy and Vasili Review Lilo and Stitch

Sometimes my seven-year-old, Vasili, wants to see some godawful movie that makes me want to melt my eyeballs out of my head. I’ve made a deal where I’ll take Vasili to whatever terrible movie YouTube has convinced them they want to see, and in exchange they’ll write a review for my blog, because I believe in child labor.

Today we’re reviewing the live-action adaptation of Lilo and Stitch.

Ozy’s Review

Lilo and Stitch (2025) spreads misinformation about Medicaid eligibility.

Some people made fun of me when I posted this on X. “It’s just a Disney movie!” they said. “What do you expect, that next the live-action Hunchback of Notre Dame will walk you through signing up for the healthcare exchanges?”

I would like to point out that it was Disney, not me, that decided to make Medicaid eligibility a plot point in Lilo and Stitch (2025). I didn’t choose this. If it were up to me, Disney characters would live in happy ignorance of the American welfare state. My preference is simply that, if Disney has made the incomprehensible choice to hinge their plot on details of the American healthcare insurance system, they get it right.

Nani failed to sign herself and Lilo up for insurance. Since she’s making barely over minimum wage and caring for a dependent, she’s almost certainly signing up for Medicaid. Lilo is injured and has to go to the hospital; Nani discovers that, because she didn’t sign up for insurance, Lilo’s bills aren’t covered. The social worker says that, in order to get Lilo’s bills covered, Nani will have to give up guardianship.

But in most states, including Hawaii, Medicaid coverage is retroactive for 90 days before the date that you sign up. Lilo’s bills should have been covered. This is frankly dangerous misinformation. For better or for worse, people learn about the world from media. How many people are going to watch the live-action Lilo and Stitch and assume it’s pointless to sign up for Medicaid after a big hospital bill?

What’s more, it should never have been Nani’s job to sign up for insurance in the first place. She has a social worker who apparently has time for weekly home visits. The social worker should have sat down with Nani and helped her sign up for health insurance. This isn’t some insane standard; helping people access the services and resources they’re qualified for is one of the basic responsibilities of a CPS caseworker.¹

This social worker was grossly negligent in her duties, instead placing the burden on the grieving eighteen-year-old single parent of an equally grieving child. Instead of doing her job, the social worker then lied to her client about the law in order to separate a child from an imperfect but loving parent. Since Lilo and Nani are both Native Hawaiians, this plot point is reminiscent of the racism throughout the Child Protective Services system, which regularly separates poor children and children of color from their parents because of “neglect” charges that reflect nothing but poverty. Maybe Lilo and Stitch (2025) was accurate about the American welfare state after all, although perhaps not in the way they wanted to be.