Medicare Loses Nearly Four Times as Much Money as Health Insurers Make

Medicare Loses Nearly Four Times as Much Money as Health Insurers Make

Michael F. Cannon
Cato Institute
March 7, 2011

The latest from Jeffrey H. Anderson, which I'll file under I-Wish-I'd-Said-That:

In a newly released report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that, in fiscal year 2010, $48 billion in taxpayer money was squandered on fraudulent or improper Medicare claims. Meanwhile, the nation’s ten largest health insurance companies made combined profits of $12.7 billion in 2010 (according to Fortune 500).

In other words, for every $1 made by the nation’s ten largest insurers, Medicare lost nearly $4. Actually, it may have been even worse than that: The GAO writes that this $48 billion in taxpayer money that went down the drain doesn’t even represent Medicare’s full tally of lost revenue, since it “did not include improper payments in its Part D prescription drug benefit, for which the agency has not yet estimated a total amount."

Courtesy of The Weekly Standard

Tell me of just one gov't program that is run efficiently and one that hasn't cost the taxpayers more than what was originally estimated.

TexasBlue wrote:Tell me of just one gov't program that is run efficiently and one that hasn't cost the taxpayers more than what was originally estimated.

Well... there was Social Securi..... oh wait, nope... that one's a loser. But then there was the Dept of Educa... oh, wait... we've tossed trillions down that rat hole in the last several decades, and education metrics have only worsened. But hey, there's the US Post Off.... oops... that one's hemorrhaging money too. Well, we do have Medicai.... aw crap... that one's gone tits up too. Oh! I know, there's Amtra... damn! Also broke.

Okay, I got nothing. Anyone else care to take a crack at this?

dblboggie wrote:

TexasBlue wrote:Tell me of just one gov't program that is run efficiently and one that hasn't cost the taxpayers more than what was originally estimated.

Well... there was Social Securi..... oh wait, nope... that one's a loser. But then there was the Dept of Educa... oh, wait... we've tossed trillions down that rat hole in the last several decades, and education metrics have only worsened. But hey, there's the US Post Off.... oops... that one's hemorrhaging money too. Well, we do have Medicai.... aw crap... that one's gone tits up too. Oh! I know, there's Amtra... damn! Also broke.

Okay, I got nothing. Anyone else care to take a crack at this?

Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! Me! Me!

Okay, Department of Defense!

Wait. That's not a program. Neither is the Post Office, btw. Amtrak is a subsidy. But hey... since we're talking shoving millions of dollars down a toilet........

Understood, but all I'm saying is that there is precious little that the federal government can do more efficiently than the private sector... whether that be by program or by subsidy. Hell, look at the disaster that biofuels has become... private sector businesses that would not exist were it not for taxpayer dollars because there is no money to be made in it without those taxpayer dollars still exist and are making profits from taxpayer dollars (and this doesn't even begin to address the negative impact this has had on grain and food prices worldwide). And the same hold's true for most "green energy" industries... were it not for federal dollars, they wouldn't stand a chance in the free market.

The fact is, the federal government doesn't have to please customers or earn a profit because they can print money or raise taxes if they need to. This is the very heart of their inefficiencies. There are no market pressures on the federal government to do a better job or to be more efficient. And this is only aided by the one supposed watchdog over government, the free press - the people who are supposed to be providing us with unbiased and truthful information of what is really going on. Once they opted to ally themselves to the causes of the left, the electorate were left without a reliable information stream on what was really going on. It was not until the rise of the alternate media that average American's learned about what was actually going on in government and it is why government has been so determined to reign in the alternate media through attempts to reinstate the "fairness doctrine" or "net-neutrality," which is nothing more than an attempt to neuter opposition messages on the internet.

Yeah, I know there are those who are going to protest this post... but the facts are the facts. I refuse to sugarcoat the facts. They are what they are. Our federal government, and the compliant mainstream media are hiding the truth of what is actually happening. The truth of this is clearly available to those who look outside the traditional mainstream media outlets and then do their own research into the actual federal documents (bills, congressional testimony, think-tank reports and the federal documents they reference).

Look, it's not like it's rocket surgery... federal government entities do not have to please customers or make a profit. That alone should militate against the creation of agencies or programs that supplant private sector enterprises that must please customers and earn a profit.