By The TREA Senior Citizens League Legislative Staff
Congress had to scramble recently to cover a $1.3 billion shortfall in the 2005 veterans' health care budget. Of the shortfall, only $273 million could be attributed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rest was blamed on unexpectedly high health care costs. The shortfall was politically embarrassing because Congress had repeated warnings that federal funding was insufficient, but passed up several chances last year to increase appropriations for veterans health care.
A similar situation is developing for Medicare and Medicaid. While Congressional attention has been riveted on adding private accounts to Social Security, experts are warning repeatedly that Medicare and Medicaid have far more pressing financing problems. The looming Medicare shortage alone is seven times the size of that of Social Security and nearly four times the size of the entire federal debt. The rapid rise in health care costs will bankrupt Medicare in just 20 years, according to the Medicare Trustees.
TSCL believes that waste, fraud and abuse is a major problem costing seniors and taxpayers billions in unnecessary, or worse, fraudulent costs. In fiscal year 2004, 17 agencies reported over $45 billion of improper payments, representing a staggering increase of 27% ($10 billion) over fiscal year 2003. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the increase was primarily attributable to Medicare.
Seniors and taxpayers will soon learn the effectiveness of a new plan to reduce improper Medicare payments for fiscal year 2005. TSCL believes that government standards, however, could be a lot more stringent. We also believe that waste, fraud and abuse will continue to plague the program as long as the government maintains its system of "pay and chase." Congress should direct Medicare to "pay attention" before paying the bills. Technology exists to provide documentation for claims electronically, to screen claims for suspicious big spikes in billing for services, and a host of other methods to prevent payment of abusive claims.
We urge you to contact Members of Congress and ask them to take action to ensure that our health care programs don't unexpectedly run short of funds. Let's make sure we know what we're paying for before we pay the bills. Doing so could help keep premiums down and our program solvent.
Sources: "Republicans Pledge to Add Spending for Veterans," Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times, June 29, 2005. "Grave Medicare Ills Await Attention," The Associated Press, March 1, 2005. "Challenges in Meeting Governmentwide Improper Payment Requirements," McCoy Williams, GAO, July 20, 2005.
October 2005
