If Keeping Health Care Costs Down is So Important--Why Did Obama Wait to Attack Waste ?

CNN/The Lid ^ | 11/18/09 | The Lid

[Shellybenoit]

After months of telling us that one of the ways he is going to fund the Health Care plans he is trying to shove down our throats, is via eliminating Medicare waste and fraud. Today, after ten months in office the White House has found some fraud.

The federal government made $98 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2009, and President Obama will issue an executive order in coming days to combat the problem, his budget director announced Tuesday.

[Pete]

My father was an actuary for many years. He testified before Congress on health care financing in the early 70's and consulted into the '90s.

He has recently written on health care reform here:

http://29thday.org/book/chapter.php?chapter=8

Here is what he wrote about waste in the system:

Waste - Perhaps the most significant question is, "If there is so much waste, why hasn't somebody already done something about it?" .... Maybe we shouldn't count quite so much on saving all of this "waste", as an offset to more spending. What's the old saying? ..."A bird in the hand (more spending) is worth two in the bush (finding AND eliminating waste).

Anyway, here is some information about Waste.

"A paper-based system that discourages sharing of medical records. Caregivers (may) duplicate tests because results recorded in a patient's record with one provider are not available to another or when medical staff provides inappropriate treatment because relevant history of previous treatment cannot be accessed administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork."

Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure " source: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091026/ts_nm/us_usa_healthcare_waste_4

AND

"A federal program with a history of making billions of dollars in erroneous payments for wheelchairs, oxygen machines and other medical equipment continues to grossly underestimate its own mistakes, according to federal investigators."

A sampling of payments for fiscal year 2008 conducted by an outside contractor found that roughly 70 percent should not have been approved, according to a new report by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services. But Medicare estimated the error rate at less than 10 percent, citing its own contractor, AdvanceMed of Richmond, Virginia. The review was not comprehensive and consisted of a sample of just 250 payments.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, requested the review after uncovering similar discrepancies with the agency's fiscal 2006 error numbers." source: http://money.aol.com/article/payment-errors-continue-to-plague/488304

Doesn't that make you a little bit nervous about how much waste will actually be found ... and eliminated? ... oh, and maybe a teeny bit nervous about the government taking over the entire health care system?

[screaminsunshine]

Hey no logical questions allowed!

[roses of sharon]

If our private insurance is so bad....why are we told we can keep it?