Fraud, waste, and abuse

By: Dr. George Watson

The Congressional Budget Office announcement May 11, 2010, that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) would cost, over the next ten years, $115 Billion more, brings the total cost over $1 Trillion.  Imagine—Congress and the President spent a whole year jamming a 2,309 page monster down our throats on the pretense of “eliminating fraud, waste and abuse (in the delivery of medical care) at a lower cost”.  This same Congressional Budget Office, using the contrived numbers given by Congress, had previously said Obamacare would REDUCE federal deficits by $143 Billion.  I smell FRAUD.

Fraud is defined as deceit, trickery, cheating, and intentional deception or dishonesty.  That describes not only the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), but also the 1000+ page Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.  One barely turns the pages of these despicable creations before the FRAUD becomes evident.

Ask a laid-off aircraft worker if his health insurance was portable.  All of the accountability requirements fell on the hospitals and doctors’ offices.  No accountability for the people who wrote and passed that wasteful bill.  Now we have the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act already costing more than the charlatans promised it would cost.  That is FRAUD and their own Congressional Budget Office confirms it.  Do you remember, “That’s what I will do in bringing all parties together, not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so the American people can see what the choices are.”? Or we will have “the most ethical Congress in history”?  Some people say, “It is just campaign rhetoric.”  This U.S. Veteran calls it FRAUD.  And more examples are Charlie Rangel, on “leave of absence” from Chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, remembering some taxes he didn’t pay and just a million of net worth he forgot to report.  And John Conyers of the House Judiciary Committee, whose wife was recently sentenced for legal problems as a Detroit Councilwoman.  There is a whole lot of deceit, cheating, deception and dishonesty.  Perhaps Senator Ben Nelson and Congressman Bart Stupak will come clean and share how much arm twisting, extortion and bribery (enhanced interrogation) were exerted on them to get them to abandon their principles.

Waste is defined to destroy, to use up, to squander, and to make weak.  That sums up what 1000+ pages of HIPAA and 2,309 pages of Obamacare are doing, and will do, to the most innovative medical system in the world, to the individuals who have to pay for what these wanna-be aristocrats have squandered, and to America that we love.  These bureaucratic plunderers will cause doctors’ expenses to rise to keep up with all the computer information gathering for the government, taxes on medical hardware will drive those prices higher, and in the end, the patient will get it with higher costs for the “Affordable Care” that was promised and not delivered. 

The truth is, they want control of you, your doctor, your bank account—to abuse you—“to use wrongly, mistreat, to revile”.  Using noble sounding titles to gain broad public acceptance, they used the desires of the people to take over one sixth of the economy.  You will buy your insurance or pay a fine to the IRS.  National rules will be implemented to standardize and streamline health insurance claims processing.  Ask someone who is on Medicaid or a doctor who accepts Medicaid how well that program is run.  More government input will make everything worse, not better.  As President Ronald Reagan said, “Government is the problem, not the solution.”

You ask, “What can I do?”  The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, www.aapsonline.org has fresh, workable ideas that benefit patients and their doctors.  Seven years ago, they showed me how I could be the doctor I dreamed of being when I started medical school—like my role models, Dr Burket and Dr Donley, focused 100% on the patients, free of the entanglements of one-sided insurance contracts that restricted patients’ options.

AAPS has filed suit against the unconstitutional “individual mandate” and we plan to win, just like we did with Hillarycare.