Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Bruce A Thompson]

Using Medicare as an example of why we should turn the rest of health care over to the government is a bad example. Look at the cost........$455 Billion is a cost of nearly $1400 for every legal man woman and child in this country. Only a small % of those citizens even use it.

Blatant Medicare fraud costs taxpayers billions
Officials say outrageous fraud schemes are 'off the charts'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22184921

Last year, Medicare spent about $16.5 billion on home care for the services reviewed by the GAO out of a total budget of $455 billion. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-12-healthfraud12_N.htm

McCaslin caught the hospital billing Medicare for accident victims, even if the patient had private insurance that was supposed to pay. The hospital also billed Medicare for prisoners, even though by law, they're not covered.

When McCaslin alerted his bosses, he was surprised to discover they were in on it. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/08/eveningnews/main3811185.shtml

53 in Detroit and Miami Indicted in Medicare Fraud Sting ...

Fraud and abuse helped boost Medicare spending on home health services 44% over five years

More Than 30 Arrested in Nationwide Medicare Fraud Sweep ...

Dec 11, 2007 ... Officials say an array of criminals are running widespread, organized and lucrative schemes to bilk Medicare out of an estimated 60-billion ...

http://www.google.com/search?q=medicare+fraud&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

" Medicare has at least $80 billion worth of fraud a year. That's a full 20 percent of every dollar that's spent on Medicare goes to fraud."
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/aug/27/tom-coburn/coburn-says-20-percent-every-medicare-dollar-goes-/