Tonight, the President gave a much anticipated address to a joint session of Congress laying out his case for Health Care Reform. I listened to him carefully and came away with a renewed sense of optimism in the American political process. He outlined the main tenets of his reforms. He wants to insure the uninsured. He wants to stabilize the insurance for those that already have coverage by guaranteeing that individuals cannot be dropped or denied coverage for prior medical conditions. He intends to lower costs by allowing the public insurance option to compete with private insurance companies through a Health Care Exchange. He vows to protect Medicare and Medicaid by reducing costs and making the system more efficient. These are all ideas that have great merit.
The President projected the cost for this health reform program to be $900 Billion over the next ten years. Let's assume that this figure is accurate. The President contends that the entire cost of this new program can be mostly funded through the savings derived from eliminating the waste and fraud from Medicare, Medicaid and the V.A. Therefore, in order to fund the President's Health Care Reform as projected, approximately $90 Billion must be generated annually as a result of simultaneously reforming existing government medical programs.
I have a unique proposal. Instead of reforming the entire US health care system at once, prove the efficiency of the proposed reforms by first addressing Medicare, Medicaid and the V.A. Reforming these existing programs should generate $90 Billion per year, as per the President's projections. Why not use these as pilot program and over a four period prove that you can save $360 Billion? That sort of extraordinary reform would place a down payment not only on the proposed health care reform costs but also serve to hedge against the credibility deficit faced by this administration.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Bravo! Very well stated. It is absolutely imperative & necessary for our Government to FIRST and foremost address all the problems and fraud within the existing Medicare and Medicaid program BEFORE any money is spent on any NEW healthcare initiative. It makes no sense to put the cart before the horse.
ReplyDeleteIn my 10+ years experience with Medicare and Medicaid, thanks to my grandmother, I saw firsthand all the fraud within those systems. From the charges for doctor's visit she never went to, to the non-existing medical services, or the medical equipment she never received, to the tricks they use on the retired/elderly to sign-up for "free" things just so they can charge Medicare/Medicaid for them. This was just one person, not imagine how many millions of seniors this is happening to over and over again. Thankfully, I was able to participate in busting a "ring" of medical supply companies that had falsely charged services and equipment on my grandmother’s Medicaid account. The owners of the medical supply company even came to intimidate my grandmother when they discovered she was the whistle blower, luckily she never opened the door, but she was scared. Over the years is scary to see how rampant the problem is.
The investigator that helped out in my grandmother’s case told us that they can only focus on the really big claims because there are not enough investigators for Medicare/Medicaid. If the we need to create new jobs, and try to tackle the mess with Medicare/Medicaid, that would be a good place to start. Hire more people to work on cleaning these systems up and on educating the elderly on what to look out for. They must reform the existing systems before taking on a new $90 Billion per year program.