Paying People to Watch TV

Calculations of the overhead cost of government-run health care programs often leave out the cost of lobbying to influence government decisions or the cost of monitoring those decisions. The Wall Street Journal reports that Perot Systems, potentially a big recipient of federal Health IT cash, has dedicated dozens of people to staff "war-rooms" in its headquarters in Plano, TX, and outside Washington, to monitor federal developments, both for itself and for its clients "who don't have the resources to have people sitting around watching C-Span."  (This is from the April 20, early print edition for residential delivery. It's edited out of the online version.)

Comments (4)

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  1. Ken says:

    At least when they are watching TV these people are not screwing up the health care system.

  2. Joe S. says:

    Overall point is corect. When we hear that Medicare only has a 2% overhead cost, that number not only excludes the cost of collecting taxes, it also excludes the cost of monitoring and lobbying on the part of everyone who is affected by what the government does.

  3. Vicki says:

    Ken: the people watching TV are biding their time, getting ready to screw things up if they get a chance.

  4. Mikel Vetri says:

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