If you like Medi-fraud, you’ll love Obamacare
Hey, just what we and future generations of taxpayers need: Vast new opportunities for out-of-control government health care fraud!
Philip Klein at the American Spectator reports:
Guillermo Denis Gonzalez was released from prison in Florida in 2004 after serving 12 years for murder. By the end of 2006, he owned a health care business officially licensed by Medicare.
This August, the Miami Herald reported that Gonzalez pled guilty to filing $586,953 in phony Medicare claims for supplies that were never given to any actual patients — but this was only after he was arrested for murdering and dismembering another victim, to which he also confessed.
While it’s shocking that government policing efforts are so lax for Medicare that even a convicted murderer can be granted a license to sell equipment and file claims, Gonzalez is actually a small player compared to other cheats. Last June, for instance, the Washington Post ran a story about a high school dropout who scammed $105 million from the federal government by filing 140,000 fraudulent Medicare claims, buying herself a Mercedes-Benz and two condominiums with a portion of the proceeds.
The rampant fraud in existing government health care programs is nothing new, but the problem warrants increased attention given recent reports of growing momentum behind Democrats’ push to create a new government-run program modeled after Medicare.
Earlier this week, the Hill reported that House Democrats were discussing rebranding their so-called “public option” as “Medicare Part E,” or “Medicare for Everyone,” in hopes that it would be an easier sell. And on Thursday, ABC News cited sources who said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid planned to include some form of a government plan in Senate legislation.
“I thought the government plan was dead,” Republican Sen. John Thune said during a Wednesday conference call with bloggers. “I don’t think that anymore.”
Proponents of creating a new government plan argue that Medicare is much more efficient than private insurance and boast that it has administrative costs of just two percent. The number is highly misleading in that it doesn’t include many expenses that would be considered when calculating administrative costs in the private sector, because those expenses show up elsewhere in the federal budget. Examples include the cost of tax collection, office space, and staff salaries. The true administrative cost of Medicare is more like 6 percent to 8 percent, according to a 2006 report by the Council for Affordable Health Insurance. But to the extent that Medicare does have lower administrative costs than private insurance, the programs’ defenders ignore one of the consequences: lax oversight of claims that leads to widespread fraud.
Ironically, President Obama has insisted that he will cut several hundred billion dollars out of Medicare’s budget without affecting benefits simply by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse — yet he simultaneously makes the case that creating a new government plan is necessary to improve efficiency in the health care system.
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There is no such thing as collectivism (whatever its flavor – socialism, communism, etc) without corruption.
Obviously the government isn’t big enough – that’s all.
Medicare is able to cut fraudulent checks to one person for over $100 million with only a couple percentage points in administrative costs.
Government saving at its finest.
Idiots.
You watch, an ACORN affiliate is gonna be in the “sign up for government insurance” business.
That’s right.
Good thing those smart socialists know a lot more than we do, and can yell at us, “Hey, you yahoo idiots, you need to pour more gasoline onto this fire (that the socialists started in the first place).”
GEEEEEE! fraud in a gubmint program. who could believe that. and waste too! oh no mr. bill, say it ain’t so! next you’ll be telling me the IRS is now warm and cuddly.
They KNOW this stuff exists. They KNOW there is million in medicare fraud, waste & abuse. So why don’t they fix this first? Why do they think they have to re-do (screw up) the entire medical system before they take care of this problem? What is there in the monster of a bill that will solve the problem of fraud, waste & abuse anyway? Show us they can take care of a known problem before they make more problems. I just don’t get it.
Claims to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse should be challenged.
Anyone sitting on the fence about healthcare reform should say they are prepared to consider reform if, and only if, the elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse can be domonstrated.
Simply railing against healthcare reform, calling people names and making wild assertions, is not as effective as saying . . . go ahead and prove it.
Give them six months to produce results. And, even if the reform does not pass, we have saved money.
The obvious answer is that they are complicit in it. How else do congressmen (who are paid less than I am) all become multi-millionaires?
I just listed my dear lost one as Mrs. Extreme Fraud and put in the comments my objection to using bad science as a basis for making political decisions. Probably will never get posted, but still it was a way to make a point.
As long as Republicans and Democrats are in control, fraud will run rampant in Washington, DC.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
It’s funny how all these people claim that government is the only answer to the heartless, profit oriented insurance companies, yet Medicare denies a higher percentage of claims than any other carrier.
Of course, Medicare isn’t too concerned about fraud because they don’t have to worry about making a profit.
Wow! Sounds like Guillermo Denis Gonzalez got himself an awesome job! Maybe I should do the same. And call it “service”.
Hey, I thought that was the entire purpose of ObamaCare…more Government jobs for worthless people, more Government programs for those who do not achieve, higher taxes for those who achieve, and loss of freedom for the American Poeple.
Did I miss anything?
Which of course begs the question:
If you’re able to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse then why don’t you just do it?!?!!? Wouldn’t that be a good thing in and of itself?
And, furthermore, trash this whole concept of reforming the way healthcare is administered in the USA?
In other words…eliminate waste and fraud, push back from excessive government control, allow for state to state portability, and Tort reform.
But that would be WAY too easy, and not a liberal prescription for destroying the American healthcare system.
They should show good faith (and ability) and clean up MediCare first.
Then we can talk about reform….
Jeez! Is Barney Frank overseeing this also?
One simple solution to some sorts of these fraud schemes would be move away from government paying for charity services and products towards allowing the unreimbursed portion of charity care to be deducted from providers income.
Tax deductible charity care provides all sorts of checks and balances against many sorts of fraud — the provider would have to have real provider income to report and pay taxes on before there is any advantage to taking a tax deduction against that income.
There is a break even point where additional charity care provides no financial benefit.
Furthermore, at no time would the tax deductions end up putting ‘new’ money in someone’s pocket.
Fraud and corruption are typical with government programs. If Obamacare passes, expect many people to pocket bribes, pay-offs and political incentives.
No but they are “kinder and gentler”!!
Too bad they cannot read a simple profit/loss statement. They kindly want to separate me from $33,000 I do not own. They just assume I received a check for EVERY “sell” order on my self-directed IRA stock account.
Idiots.
Fraud and criminality are the norms in today’s society. Anyone who does anything according to any ethical, moral standards is a fool, because he will be swatted down and punished by a society that believes that hard work and achievement must support and uphold corruption, ignorance, and poverty. Criminals are seen as victims, because they have failed to succeed in accordance with real productivity, and productivity is seen as the means to feed those who refuse to do anything for their own benefit; therefore, even a murderer should benefit from a society that sees failure as a virtue and success as an evil.
The sickness that has a hold upon every corner of American society will not be cured until it has collapsed and the corrupt charade of a government that we have today has crumbled with it. There will be excruciating days ahead, that will include panic, mayhem, and the deaths of thousands, because too many do not understand what is happening. Too many actually think that government is the source of all that matters in their lives, they will realize when it is too late that government is what has taken everything that matters away from them.
Every last vestige of corruption and tyranny must be wiped out before we can ever experience liberty and freedom again. It won’t come by elections, because all of the parties are controlled by the very people who wish to enslave us. America as we know it today must be utterly destroyed. Every last bit of what we see today with this all-powerful centralized government must be burned down in order that a renewed republic can rise again.