And Progressives complain about profit in healthcare?
Isn't it time to get Government OUT of the healthcare field altogether?? Hey, with examples like this, Obama's question:
The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."
-President Barack Obama, 1/20/09
is answered with yet another "No", it's not working....Government isn't exactly setting the world on fire for being accurate or "paying attention to detail" here either:
Government-Run Health Insurance Program Made Almost $19 Billion in Improper Payments in 2008
(CNSNews.com) - Medicaid, the government-run health insurance program for low income people that is administered by state governments and funded by federal taxpayers, made almost $19 billion in improper payments in 2008, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office last week.
These improper payments equaled the largest share--26 percent--of all improper government payments in 2008.
But most of those payments were the result of errors, not deliberate fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees Medicaid.
Improper payments include payments to ineligible persons or for ineligible services, duplicate payments, payments for services not received or full payments made when discounts might apply.
According to the report, the U.S. government made an estimated $72 billion overall in improper payments last year. Of that total, Medicaid doled out almost $19 billion. Seventy-seven other programs were responsible for the remaining $53 billion, and 11 other programs did not report estimates for 2008.
Speaking of Government isn't working, and since it is Friday, we can all use a bit more humor in those two veins of life. I'm not sure which is more humorous - Joe Biden's gaffe about not traveling because of swine flu or White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs's squirming trying to recast what Biden was supposed to say:
OK, Gibbs is the greater buffon! Remember those guys in the Inaurgural Parade that were sweeping up after the horses....
Comments
According to the summary of the GAO report, it seems like the total of improper payments is much, much more. from http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09628thigh.pdf
Posted by: Wonketeria | May 1, 2009 12:42 PM