The government run health insurance plan for seniors continues to lose money every year and fraud continues unabated. The Miami Herald reports that Florida has become the Medicare fraud capital of the United States.
Florida mental health clinics submitted $421 million in bills to Medicare last year -- about four times more than Texas and a whopping 635 times higher than Michigan, both also hotbeds of healthcare rackets, according to government records.
Florida rehabilitation facilities billed $310 million for physical and speech therapy -- 140 times more than New York and 10 times higher than California, records show.
With all the criticism heaped on health insurance companies I have never heard a single report on fraud that comes anywhere close to this kind of crime. Yet to listen to politicians and the lame stream media you would think a government takeover of health care is the best thing that could ever happen.
Miami Dade has about 250,000 residents. If the government can't control fraud in such a small population how will it ever prevent fraud when they take over health care for 320 million? This is a problem Ray Charles could see from a mile away.
In 2008, Medicare paid $520 million to Miami-Dade home healthcare agencies for treating diabetic patients -- more than what the agency spent in the rest of the country combined, according to federal authorities.
Why isn't this a red flag? It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out there might be a problem. Even Forrest Gump would realize something is not right.
This tells you something about the level of incompetence in the Medicare system when obvious abuse is allowed to grow to this magnitude unabated.
Overall, Medicare fraud in South Florida costs taxpayers between $3 billion and $4 billion annually, according to experts. Nationwide, Medicare and other healthcare fraud is estimated to cost $68 billion annually -- about $18 billion more than the Obama administration plans to spend on education in the next fiscal year.
Teachers take note. When the government pisses away more money on fraud than it will spend on education this should be a warning. Where is the torch and pitchfork crowd? Why isn't someone demanding a halt to this kind of incompetence?
There are currently 40 million people on Medicare. Over the next 10 years the baby boomer generation will add 70 million participants. It is common knowledge that Social Security is flat busted and has been for years. This year Medicare will pay out more than it receives in tax collections for the first time ever. This problem will only get worse, not better, and it doesn't help when dollars are leaking out in the form of fraud.
Wasn't Obamacrap supposed to end this kind of fraud? A snowball has a better chance in Hell.
