The aforementioned 60 Minutes story also speaks to Medicare patients who have reported fraud but insist that nothing has been done about it. One woman has been reporting fake charges to her account since 2003 but more than 6 years later, Medicare hasn’t put a stop to it.
According to the group Insurance Coalition Against Fraud, US healthcare spending is over $2 trillion annually. The estimated patient count for Medicare & Medicaid is 44 & 54 million Americans respectively, although up to 10 million Americans may be dual-enrolled. If we accept at face value that 47 million Americans & illegals are uninsured, that means over 160 million people are privately insured in this country with no form of government aid. Out of that $2 trillion figure, the 2010 budget for Medicare & Medicaid is $759 billion & of that, Medicare fraud alone costs an estimated $65 billion or more. (Figures for Medicaid fraud are largely unknown). But the total fraud estimates for healthcare across the board is between $125 to $175 billion per year. How can we justify Medicare/Medicaid spending being a relatively small portion of total health care spending but at least a third or possibly half of all fraud? Sure doesn’t seem like a very efficient system.
For every one dollar spent combating fraud, Medicare saves $1.55. In comparison, private insurers average a return of $17.3 million for every $2 million spent. That’s a 55% return versus a return of more than 860%. Instead of pointing the finger at private insurers, our government should be emulating them, at least as far as vigilance in detecting fraud & efficiency of preventing, stopping or recouping losses. Again, let’s see these clowns get their existing programs in order & show some understanding of business, economics or other relevant points before they overturn our healthcare apple cart, which would hurt all Americans & help none.
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