Is Universal Health care the answer?
Is Universal Health care the answer for the U.S.?
Do you honestly want the government regulating your health care? Do you want the government deciding what treatments and medications you can have? Ask the people who come here from Canada and England about their National Health care plans, they have them. They will tell you that they wait for months for an MRI. They will tell you that necessary surgeries are scheduled months after they are actually needed. Ask them why they come to America and pay out of their pocket for health care here. They will tell you what you should already know. We in America have the best health care in the world.
However, Congress has done such a fantastic job of bankrupting the Social Security system and looking at the level at which fraud takes place within the Medicare/Medicaid system this will serve as another testament of how well the government handles our health care agencies. Do you want to entrust them with your personal health care?
How about if we put them to the test first? Let's give them the proper funds they need and task them with fighting the fraud and corruption in both the Medicare and Medicaid plans first. Which, by the way is estimated at more than $60 Billion per year. If this fraud was eradicated that money would go a long way toward the reduction of the National debt. There will always be fraud but there surely has to be a way to cut down the numbers here, they are staggering.
This article which appeared in the Washington Post, Friday, June 12 was startling.(for full article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/12/AR2008061203915.html
This is just one person, there are thousands more.
All it took to bilk the federal government out of $105 million was a laptop computer. From her Mediterranean-style townhouse, a high school dropout named Rita Campos Ramirez orchestrated what prosecutors call the largest health-care fraud by one person. Over nearly four years, she electronically submitted more than 140,000 Medicare claims for unnecessary equipment and services. She used the proceeds to finance big-ticket purchases, including two condominiums and a Mercedes-Benz. Health-care experts say the simplicity of Campos Ramirez's scheme underscores the scope of the growing fraud problem and the need to devote more resources to theft prevention. Law enforcement authorities estimate that health-care fraud costs taxpayers more than $60 billion each year. "You can see how these frauds spread through communities," said Kirk Ogrosky, who is deputy chief in the Justice Department's fraud section and helps lead the strike force. "Family members and friends just get sucked into it. It's really rags to riches on the backs of the American taxpayer."
In a recent Miami Herald article http://www.theledger.com/article/20080817/NEWS/808170392
Kimberly Brandt, director of program integrity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said there's only so much the agency can do because of limited resources. Congress has appropriated $720 million to combat fraud, with no increase in the past three years. That's a small piece of Medicare's $432 billion annual budget.
Why are we so willing to absorb the costs of overspending and fraud rather than funding agencies to stop it from running so rampant?
We have read up on the two sides, the Democrats and the Republicans in regards to health care. Here is a quick look at each:
The Obama camp leans heavily towards Universal Health care as the answer to the problem. If we go this route, won't we just be replacing the inefficiency, fraud and uncontrolled costs of the current system outlined above with the inefficiency, fraud and uncontrolled costs of a government monopoly. Is this really the answer? Does it make sense to look more at fixing the problems we have first? Investing that money saved into specific monies earmarked for tax credits and the like to help people without health insurance secure it? Otherwise aren't we just putting good money towards bad money? Universal health care also does not put the same responsibility onto the person covered. People are going to have to become responsible for themselves and realize that they cannot expect the American people through hard earned tax money to pay for chronic health conditions which are in many cases controllable. ie. smoking, obesity, diabetes. We are responsible for our own well being and one way to reduce costs in the health care system is to take better care of ourselves! It is not expensive to do, it costs little in the way of money and more in the way of discipline!
The McCain plan as we look at it allows the people to pick the provider they wish to choose and they will be given a tax credit for the same amount that their employer would have gotten had they offered it to the employee directly. They would tell the government who the insurer was, the insurer would get a check from the government and the taxpayer would pay the balance. This form of credits would open the door to churches and other organizations to be able to offer health care to people who do not have access to them at work or those who are self-employed. They in turn would apply and receive the tax credits for doing so. The tax credit would heavily offset the cost to the individual. Most employed people who are offered health care through their employer pay for a part of that plan. This would work in a similar way. It would not be free. However, the biggest benefit would be that you would be in control and not be at the mercy of the government. There are many issues that still need to be worked out with McCain's plan, a big one in particular; people with pre-existing conditions that find it nearly impossible to get coverage.
This mess was not created over night and it won't be fixed overnight. Until the time comes when we can be confident that they are doing a stellar job in the administration of our current government programs and curbing the enormous waste and fraud, we might think twice about relinquishing more control on something that is so close to our person as our health care to them.
The debate is, do we want the government to be in charge of a Universal Health Care system? Are we confident after knowing the current situation of our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid system that they are ready to take it on? I for one know, I am surely not convinced.
What about you?
Speak Now America! we want to hear from you!
Do you honestly want the government regulating your health care? Do you want the government deciding what treatments and medications you can have? Ask the people who come here from Canada and England about their National Health care plans, they have them. They will tell you that they wait for months for an MRI. They will tell you that necessary surgeries are scheduled months after they are actually needed. Ask them why they come to America and pay out of their pocket for health care here. They will tell you what you should already know. We in America have the best health care in the world.
However, Congress has done such a fantastic job of bankrupting the Social Security system and looking at the level at which fraud takes place within the Medicare/Medicaid system this will serve as another testament of how well the government handles our health care agencies. Do you want to entrust them with your personal health care?
How about if we put them to the test first? Let's give them the proper funds they need and task them with fighting the fraud and corruption in both the Medicare and Medicaid plans first. Which, by the way is estimated at more than $60 Billion per year. If this fraud was eradicated that money would go a long way toward the reduction of the National debt. There will always be fraud but there surely has to be a way to cut down the numbers here, they are staggering.
This article which appeared in the Washington Post, Friday, June 12 was startling.(for full article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/12/AR2008061203915.html
This is just one person, there are thousands more.
All it took to bilk the federal government out of $105 million was a laptop computer. From her Mediterranean-style townhouse, a high school dropout named Rita Campos Ramirez orchestrated what prosecutors call the largest health-care fraud by one person. Over nearly four years, she electronically submitted more than 140,000 Medicare claims for unnecessary equipment and services. She used the proceeds to finance big-ticket purchases, including two condominiums and a Mercedes-Benz. Health-care experts say the simplicity of Campos Ramirez's scheme underscores the scope of the growing fraud problem and the need to devote more resources to theft prevention. Law enforcement authorities estimate that health-care fraud costs taxpayers more than $60 billion each year. "You can see how these frauds spread through communities," said Kirk Ogrosky, who is deputy chief in the Justice Department's fraud section and helps lead the strike force. "Family members and friends just get sucked into it. It's really rags to riches on the backs of the American taxpayer."
In a recent Miami Herald article http://www.theledger.com/article/20080817/NEWS/808170392
Kimberly Brandt, director of program integrity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said there's only so much the agency can do because of limited resources. Congress has appropriated $720 million to combat fraud, with no increase in the past three years. That's a small piece of Medicare's $432 billion annual budget.
Why are we so willing to absorb the costs of overspending and fraud rather than funding agencies to stop it from running so rampant?
We have read up on the two sides, the Democrats and the Republicans in regards to health care. Here is a quick look at each:
The Obama camp leans heavily towards Universal Health care as the answer to the problem. If we go this route, won't we just be replacing the inefficiency, fraud and uncontrolled costs of the current system outlined above with the inefficiency, fraud and uncontrolled costs of a government monopoly. Is this really the answer? Does it make sense to look more at fixing the problems we have first? Investing that money saved into specific monies earmarked for tax credits and the like to help people without health insurance secure it? Otherwise aren't we just putting good money towards bad money? Universal health care also does not put the same responsibility onto the person covered. People are going to have to become responsible for themselves and realize that they cannot expect the American people through hard earned tax money to pay for chronic health conditions which are in many cases controllable. ie. smoking, obesity, diabetes. We are responsible for our own well being and one way to reduce costs in the health care system is to take better care of ourselves! It is not expensive to do, it costs little in the way of money and more in the way of discipline!
The McCain plan as we look at it allows the people to pick the provider they wish to choose and they will be given a tax credit for the same amount that their employer would have gotten had they offered it to the employee directly. They would tell the government who the insurer was, the insurer would get a check from the government and the taxpayer would pay the balance. This form of credits would open the door to churches and other organizations to be able to offer health care to people who do not have access to them at work or those who are self-employed. They in turn would apply and receive the tax credits for doing so. The tax credit would heavily offset the cost to the individual. Most employed people who are offered health care through their employer pay for a part of that plan. This would work in a similar way. It would not be free. However, the biggest benefit would be that you would be in control and not be at the mercy of the government. There are many issues that still need to be worked out with McCain's plan, a big one in particular; people with pre-existing conditions that find it nearly impossible to get coverage.
This mess was not created over night and it won't be fixed overnight. Until the time comes when we can be confident that they are doing a stellar job in the administration of our current government programs and curbing the enormous waste and fraud, we might think twice about relinquishing more control on something that is so close to our person as our health care to them.
The debate is, do we want the government to be in charge of a Universal Health Care system? Are we confident after knowing the current situation of our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid system that they are ready to take it on? I for one know, I am surely not convinced.
What about you?
Speak Now America! we want to hear from you!
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