MIAMI — The taxpayer-funded Medicare program paid more than $120 million from 2009 to 2011 in violation of federal law for medical services for inmates and illegal immigrants, according to two reports issued Thursday by federal health officials.
By law, Medicare generally does not pay for services for either group of patients. But the program was billed for more than $33 million in inmate care and more than $91 million for illegal immigrant care over that period, according to the reports from the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general.
Comments
Let's see, from the article, 2011 Medicare expenditures were $549 BILLION, whereas illegal expenditures over three years 2009-2011 were $120 MILLION, so let's say this is $40 MILLION per year.
The fraction $40,000,000/549,000,000,000 comes out to 0.000073, which is 0.0073 per cent or 1 part in 13,698. Looks remarkably waste-free to me. Any organization with this ratio should be very, very happy, but the headline completely insinuates the wrong idea, one of those tacit dishonesties that undermines true understanding. We assume that the Boston Globe is responsible for the choice of headline (clean up your act).
Kelli Kennedy of the AP needs to spell this out. It's not just a small fraction, it's a VERY, VERY SMALL FRACTION of the whole budget.
If the Republicans would only allow the Federal government to negotiate Medicare drug prices, we would be saving on the order of $50 BILLION per year or 1250 times this amount that is spent on inmates and illegal immigrants.
Our press is so completely lame (and innumerate).
This kind of innumerate (crypto-politically-motivated?) writing undermines respect for the mainstream press.
Please, AP and Globe, you can do much better than this.
We can't have rational policies that will bring our country forward when the mainstream press focuses on little side-shows like this and not on what really matters. Report this but keep it in perspective. Get real, and help America think straight.
Our president passed the biggest health care bill in this countries history, did he not include drug negotiations in the bill? seems it's easier to blame the republicans for everything.
the illegals cost more then that and include the medicaid also receive and that is billions....then add schools that need special teachers for the illegal children...etc....on & on....then stupid pork items in bills like for Sandy disaster.....alot of waste and nothing is being done by both sides..
When will this country stop giving to illegals? We that are born here, go to work every day, pay our bills, our mortgage, and huge taxes are the ones that it is "stuffed to"..we are the ones that have to pay for illegals (and inmates) and when we need any type of assistance it will be long gone. This country has to start deporting illegals as other countries do. We need to have a harder stance on this matter. Why doesn't anybody have any backbone when it comes to this? We have to buy insurance illegals don't. Does this make sense? Not to me. I'm tired of paying for everybody, my pockets are empty.
Look, this amounts to treating one inmate or illegal immigrant for every 14,000 people.
If the treatment is for something like tuberculosis or some other communicable disease, then it makes complete sense from a public health perspective to go ahead and treat them. It costs us less as a society to treat them than to deal with the consequences of their illnesses. And this is obviously not what is inflating health care costs for Medicare.
Focus on the drug companies that are sucking hundreds of billions from our wallets, by not allowing us to import generics.
Illegal immigrants ARE required to buy health insurance -- they are also required to pay taxes, including those that support Social Security and Medicare. We don't know how inmates get treated under Medicare (this must be from erroneous billing by jails), but in any case, THIS PROBLEM IS MINISCULE.
Very, very few people are getting something for nothing.
Why it is that conservatives are so obsessed with this little meme of makers and takers is beyond me, but their obsession says a great deal about who they are and how they think (of themselves and others). Live and let live. Live well and hope that others do too.
As far as taxes go, most people pay more in interest on mortgages, loans, and credit cards, directly or indirectly, than they do in taxes. Financial institutions are getting what is essentially free money and charging you interest on it.
Congress does not want the pharmaceutical companys profits to go down. That is one of their piggy banks. It's been estimated that if medicare negotiated drug prices like the VA does, we, the taxpayers, could save $15 billion a year. And "recouping the losses", good luck with that.
The figure that I saw for this was more like $50 billion a year, but even $15 billlion is one Big Dig per year.
Sometimes, it's in the interest of public health to treat everybody. Whether or not everyone is technically eligible for Medicare, it's better to give out flu shots, treat people for tuberculosis, and the like, rather than let diseases spread more widely.