Medicare’s long-term financial outlook is many times worse than Social Security’s. That’s why it was so frustrating to read in a Washington Post news article that researchers estimate that $1 of every $3 of Medicare spending goes for unnecessary or inappropriate care. Even more frustrating and unacceptable is Medicare’s and Congress’ failure to curb this waste. Or to even seem to care.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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6 Comments
Waste in a federal program? I can not believe it!!! LOL
Put Congress on Medicare and make them rely on it for their health car and then they will do something about it.
Amen. We can agree on something.
Go to an assistance living facility or a medical equipment provider and see how much they charge medicare for items and care. You will be surprised. $10 a box for tissue, what normally would cost $800 for a motorized scooter for the general public, they will charge over $5000 to medicare for it. A $40 walker, they will charge $300. So on and on. It’s a gravy train for health care providers and medical equipment providers. Although laced with so much paperwork, its worth it for them, because they know that can 10X the average price of it.
Now that we will have the trillion dollar drug cost added to Medicare in the next 10 years… It is not going to stop.
I think Anon is right. Let them live on Social Security and Medicare when they retire and cut those benifits they now receive to 20%.
Hey Joe,As someone who’s spent a lot of time dealing with all that crap, I have to agree with you that a lot of that overcharging goes on. Problem is, there’s so much that Medicare doesn’t cover, or underpays, that the providers often need to overcharge on what they do pay on just to keep the books level. For Medicare patients, it generally comes out somewhere close to even; it’s the uninsured, who get charged the inflated prices so providers can justify their bookkeeping, that really suffer here. Between Medicare and the private insurers, they are, for all practical purposes, priced out of the market on drugs and equipment that make the difference between life and death. Because of that, many end up in extended care facilities unnecessarily, at state expense, making medical care even more expensive! Vicious circle!As much as we’ve resisted the idea, I’m afraid the only solution is going to be some kind of universal plan. Right now, the people who have to pay the most are the ones who can least afford it, and before long, the pyramid’s going to collapse, and we’ll have no system at all!