Rep. Darrell Issa: The lackluster record of government-run health care
As printed in The Washington Examiner
March 18, 2010

Before the Democrats who control Congress push through a trillion-dollar expansion of government-run health care, they might want to know the facts about how efficiently the government has handled health care in the past, and how much bigger the government will grow once the bill becomes law.

When all is said and done, President Obama’s plan mandates dozens of new entitlement programs and creates scores of new government offices, bureaus, commissions, and programs, all of which will have to be funded, staffed and managed at taxpayer cost.

Moreover, an expansion of the federal bureaucracy at that rate will greatly increase the incidence of waste, fraud and abuse in health care. Already Medicare, which accounts for 14% of all federal spending, is rife with waste, fraud and abuse. Even Attorney General Eric Holder has said, “By all accounts, every year we lose tens of billions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid funds to fraud.”

A recent analysis by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that federal subsidy programs cost taxpayers about $100 billion every year in improper payments, with Medicare and Medicaid accounting for more than half of that. Harvard Professor Malcolm Sparrow, a specialist in health care fraud teaching at the Kennedy School of Government, has estimated that as much as 20% of the federal health program budgets – or approximately $150 billion – is eaten up by improper payments every year.

No budget gimmick can hide that kind of wasteful spending from the American people, and no expansion of the government’s role in health care can mitigate the systemic problems that already exist.

This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters – and her undecided Democratic colleagues – that the bulk of the cost for the president’s plan will come from recovering wasteful spending in Medicare and Medicaid, an amount she projects will add up to $500 billion over the next several years.

Such assurances are disingenuous, however, in light of the evidence. In 2008, for instance, the Department of Justice recovered a meager $1.48 billion from Medicare and Medicaid fraud through enforcement programs that cost taxpayers $1.13 billion. Once these enforcement costs are subtracted, the government only recovered $350 million. At that rate, it would take the Justice Department more than 1,400 years to recover enough to pay for the president’s plan.

Government-run health care also runs much higher administrative costs per insured person than private insurance does. Using numbers from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the wastefulness of bureaucratically-managed health care becomes staggering.

Each year, the government spends an average of $927 in administrative costs per person for Medicaid and $509 for Medicare. Private insurance, on the other hand, costs only $453 per person in administrative costs. Until the government can demonstrate an ability to get administrative costs under control for programs that it already runs, Americans should vehemently oppose any effort to give bureaucrats in Washington any more power to control the one-sixth of the U.S. economy that affects health care.
Republicans have long urged that the Democratic majority tackle issues such as waste, fraud and abuse in the government-run health care programs that already exist before undertaking any expansion of federal health programs or other large-scale health care overhaul. Remedying these problems will save taxpayer dollars and slow the rate of rising health care costs. However, Democrats have been quick to reject any solutions brought to the table by Republicans, including medical malpractice reform and tighter controls on waste, fraud and abuse. .

The taxpayers are not deceived. They know that the government’s track record in managing healthcare has proven less efficient and more expensive than private insurance. They know that the President’s plan is a recipe for more waste, fraud, and abuse.
And they have sent consistent messages both in the polls and at the polling places that they do not support a scheme for bigger government with more control over their lives. Regrettably, the Democratic leadership in Congress is more concerned about giving the president a legislative win than they are about giving the American people the kind of responsible reforms they want.

Read Amendment 28 of our Constitution (it is as follows)

“Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators or Representatives and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.”

Last question, why would anyone want a bill to pass when Nancy Pelosi said we have to pass this bill to see what is in it?

You may want to go to Liberty Counsel and read or join. This counsel is part of Liberty University the largest angelical college in the US.

Here are some things you may want to read that I received from the Liberty Counsel

* In a last-minute “sweetener,” the government

will grab power from the insurance industry and

the student loan industry simultaneously. Banks

and lenders will be cut out of the guaranteed

student loan business, which of course will cost

jobs. If ObamaCare passes, the government will

become the sole source for federally guaranteed

student loans.

* Beginning in 2014, under the “individual mandate,”

Americans will be required to purchase insurance

or face stiff penalties for refusing.

* In an arrangement similar to KGB-style oppression,

ObamaCare will broaden IRS power, allowing that

agency to confiscate refunds or other payments

to Americans if there are unpaid penalties for

not buying “approved” healthcare insurance. The

IRS will have to hire tens of thousands of new

agents to enforce the law.

* The bill increases Medicare payroll taxes while

increasing Medicare cuts to over $500 billion.

Other tax hikes will be inevitable. The CBO’s

“estimated cost” of ObamaCare at under a trillion

dollars is tooth-fairy accounting, and wasn’t

even an official statement!

Please get more informed about things before you send stuff out you just may be liable for a person’s bad decision.

Charles Wright

P.S. The insurance companies on average only make 2.2% profit and the top company makes just over 4% profit. Wal-mart makes more profit than that and I do not here you complaining about how mush they make.

I quit my job last May to be certified as a science teacher, assuming there would be jobs available. There weren’t, here in Austin – nor have I been able to find another job in my former line of work (being visibly pregnant makes interviews tricky, too). My husband is employed by the Texas school system as an elementary teacher, and open enrollment for their insurance isn’t until July and wouldn’t kick in until September, after this baby’s birth. Pregnancy is not considered a life-changing event (!). Private insurance considers pregnancy to be a pre-existing condition, and won’t accept me. My husband’s (low) teacher’s salary is exactly over the cut-off for my pregnancy to be covered by Texas CHIP Perinatal.

We considered divorce, but don’t want to break any laws. Still, we’re desperate for help. This debt on top of our considerable student loans will make it even harder to make the bills each month, which is already challenging.