These guys probably owe you money...

Election Checkup Part One
or
One Long First Post













One issue I feel that is overlooked when discussing the healthcare crisis is understanding who actually pays for your healthcare. A lot of people don't realize that in total the US Government pays for 60% of the health expenditures in our country (according to a Harvard study). A large part of this goes to subsidizing the private insurance people receive through work and is the reason health insurance is so heavily tied to employment.

Another aspect which the government pays for are the so called "Plus" of "Advantage" managed care programs. These plans basically take government money earmarked either for Medicaid or Medicare, then repackage it to provide those eligible for Medicaid/Medicare with different options. They advertise things like lower co-pays and the like, but these are for-profit companies and aren't looking to do their subscribers any favors. Generally they take their cut by denying services or setting caps so that for very large medical bills the patient is left holding the check. The other way is through the what is known as "overpaying." The government pays a certain amount per enrollee. If that is unspent, a large portion is supposed to be returned to the government. However through creative book keeping and write offs such as administrative costs, they end up keeping a very substantial percent. This number is debatable, but thought to be around 50 percent. Thus the government overpays. Needless to say (yet I will) Medicare Advantage programs, which were reworked in 2003, are doing very very well right now.

One of these plus plans, a Medicaid plan based in St. Louis, recently sold for $95 million. Mercy CarePlus, which is known around the hospital as "Merciless Plus," has a reputation for automatically denying routine and essential studies. Their hitman, the physician who, in his ultimate wisdom, deems other physicians' requests unnecessary and overrules them with a rubber stamp, has lost his license in two states. When the company sold, its top 3 executives (pictured above) split $10 million dollars.

Basically these companies are taking money earmarked either for Medicare (65 and over crowd) or Medicaid (children, plus the poor and disabled), and are turning huge profits on it mostly through denying services keeping the left overs.

I wonder how those three sleep at night knowing that each basically took $3.3 million of taxpayer money earmarked for poor children Probably on some sort of ultra-luxurious custom sleep number bed with a layer and a half of Swedish memory foam. I mean look at that picture. I have never seen three guys so pleased with themselves. "Thanks kiddos, we finally did it! We did the unthinkable and turned a huge profit on Medicaid! Feels like a Viagra night to me! High five"

This is the double standard of private/public health care that I believe is eroding our health care system. On one end the people in charge cry foul anytime government interference with health care is mentioned, yet they continue to prop up private companies with public funds. The US taxpayer's dollar basically ends up in some CEO's pocket.

So how do the major candidates weigh in on this issue?
McCain - Does not oppose federal subsidies for Medicare Advantage plans
Clinton - No stance as of 11/07 (I couldn't find anything to suggest otherwise)
Obama - Opposes federal subsidies for Medicare Advantage plans.
Huckabee - The Lord shall provideth.

Sorry for the epic post.
Cliff Notes
Government already paying 60% of total healthcare expenditures.
This includes the 'Advantage' or 'Plus' plans.
These are stupid.