A Brooklyn dentist billed New York State Medicaid for treating 991 patients in one day. New York State paid maternity claims for 150 men! These are just two of the egregious examples of the pervasive fraud that plagues the Medicaid program, according to a new book edited by the Center for Health Transformation’s Jim Frogue.
Tag Archives: government run health care
You Are Not Going to Be Able to Keep Your Health Care Plan
The House bill will (over time) allow all employers to drop their coverage and send their employees to the government-run, government-regulated health insurance exchange, where the federal subsidies will be much higher than the tax relief for employer-provided insurance. Here is the time table:
- First year – "smallest" employers (10 or fewer employees)
- Second year – "smaller" employers (20 or fewer employees)
- Third year and thereafter – "larger" employers (21 or more employees, at a schedule and pace the Commissioner deems appropriate)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxo4rjO9cc4
"A little bitty tear let me down"
The House Plan Forces 114 Million Americans Out of Their Current Health Coverage
A Lewin Group analysis of the House health reform bill finds that 2 out of 3 Americans will lose their current health coverage:
- 114 million Americans would be forced out of their current private health coverage, including more than 106 million Americans who currently have employer-provided health care.
- There will be substantial cost shifting to private health plans. The “public” plan will significantly underpay health care providers, generally compensating them at rates 20-30% below what private health plans would pay for the same services. As a result, physicians and hospitals would be forced to charge those with private insurance more in order to offset the losses they experience under the Democrats’ government-run plan.
- A December Milliman Group study found current Medicare and Medicaid underpayments drive up the cost of private coverage for the average family of four by $1,788.
- The Lewin Group study estimates that a government-run plan that pays Medicare-based rates would increase the cost shift to $3,628.
- Medicaid enrollment will increase by 16 million.Many of those newly enrolled would previously have had employer-provided health care.
CBO Dissects the Kennedy/Dodd Bill
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) appeared this morning before the HELP committee to answer questions about its analysis of the Kennedy/Dodd bill. There are a few important takeaways from CBO's comments:
- The Kennedy/Dodd bill will increase spending by more than $1.2 trillion, and this doesn't include the 10-year cost of the plan when fully implemented.The bill includes $723 billion in new spending, not including the $500 billion cost of expanding Medicaid assumed in the bill. CBO agreed with Senator Burr when he pointed out that the estimate includes only 6 years of full implementation of the program.
- If you like what you have, you can't keep it. The CBO confirmed that several million Americans would lose their employer-based health insurance they have now if Kennedy/Dodd becomes law. Continue reading CBO Dissects the Kennedy/Dodd Bill
Lucy and Charlie Brown, Again
Spinning the Polls
Perhaps humbled by its shellacking for hosting and broadcasting the Obama-infomercial on Wednesday, ABC and its collaborators at the Washington Post put a very different spin on a health-reform poll that has essentially the same results as the New York Times' one a few days ago. While the Gray Lady promoted the notion that the American people are ga-ga for a so-called "public option" for health insurance (actually a swamp of new federal bureaucracies, if Sen. Kennedy's bill is any indication), the WaPo/ABC folks are close to pushing the panic button on the plan for a government take-over:
Most respondents are "very concerned" that health-care reform would lead to higher costs, lower quality, fewer choices, a bigger deficit, diminished insurance coverage and more government bureaucracy. About six in 10 are at least somewhat worried about all of these factors, underscoring the challenges for lawmakers as they attempt to restructure the nation's $2.3 trillion health-care system. Continue reading Spinning the Polls
Let Private Compete with Public Insurance
Supporters of the public option, a government run health insurance plan to compete with private insurers, say that it will make everyone better off by forcing private firms to provide health insurance for less. But if that is the case, why not allow already existing public plan options to compete with the private sector?
Give people in Medicare, state Medicaid plans, the Veterans Administration, and state SCHIP plans the choice of staying in the government run program or taking an equivalent voucher for the purchase of private health insurance and private medical care, perhaps with a health savings account option for any leftover funds. Continue reading Let Private Compete with Public Insurance
Hits & Misses #2 – 2009/6/23
At VA hospitals, 92 of 116 prostrate operations botched. VA is cited by Krugman, others as setting quality standards for others to follow.
Government-run health care in other countries means higher labor costs. Portion of employee costs for health care and other social services ranges from 27% (Aus) to 52% (Ger); it is 30% in the US.
More than 100 studies have confirmed the benefits of moderate drinking. But some scientists question the result: Maybe moderate drinkers are just healthier to begin with.
Another View on Safeway
Wall Street Journal readers might have noticed two different takes on Safeway CEO Steve Burd's health-reform agenda this morning. Kim Strassel praised his success at keeping health costs flat for four years, through an incentive-based plan that rewards employees for quitting smoking and other healthy changes, and characterized him as an opponent of government-run health care. Over on the letters page, yours truly and others criticized Mr. Burd's involvement with the political class, especially his proposal that the government should "cover all Americans" with a plan like Safeway's. Continue reading Another View on Safeway
OK, If There Has to be a “Public Plan,” Let It Be the Indian Health Service
This is from the Associated Press:
On some reservations, the oft-quoted refrain is “don’t get sick after June,” when the federal dollars run out. It’s a sick joke, and a sad one, because it’s sometimes true, especially on the poorest reservations where residents cannot afford health insurance. Officials say they have about half of what they need to operate, and patients know they must be dying or about to lose a limb to get serious care.
American Indians have an infant death rate that is 40 percent higher than the rate for whites. They are twice as likely to die from diabetes, 60 percent more likely to have a stroke, 30 percent more likely to have high blood pressure and 20 percent more likely to have heart disease…… After Haiti, men on the impoverished Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota have the lowest life expectancy in the Western Hemisphere.