Republicans - Bilking The American Taxpayer (News) (Commentary)

I have written in the past about my feelings on privatizing public services. I've had (still have) at least three contacts with people who are connected with this process, and what it involves is a reduction in force of government employees and an increase of private contractors being hired to do the jobs of the government employees whose jobs were eliminated.

This all sounds great on paper - and it was the backbone of Ronald Reagan's term in office. This conservative view of government is based on the premise that the private sector does a more efficient job than does the bureaucracy. In reality this program has proven to be a boon for the private contractors who are lining their pockets with huge wads of cash.

Instead of hiring a skilled government employee at a salary of $100,000 per year, we outsource the job at $400 per hour - that's $16,000 per week and $832,000 per year. That's your taxpayer dollars going to the Republican party's rich friends.

In keeping with this "privatization" theory under the Republican administration, Medicare has been outsourcing some of its coverage to private HMO's. An elderly patient, instead of finding a doctor or hospital which will take Medicare, joins an HMO (fee paid by his/her Medicare plan) and then must go to a doctor and/or hospital covered by the HMO. Once again, the philosophy is that the private sector is much more efficient than the Government at running a health care program. But - the truth of the matter is - the programs are designed by Republicans to get more of your tax dollars into the hands of their rich friends.

From the New York Times...

Private Medicare plans often cost beneficiaries more than the traditional government-run Medicare program, Congressional investigators say.

Many private plans advertise extra benefits and low costs. But in a report to be issued Thursday, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, says that many people in private plans face higher costs for home health care, nursing homes and some hospital stays.

About one-fifth of the 44 million Medicare beneficiaries — 9 million people — are in private plans, known as Medicare Advantage plans.
The report says, “Medicare spends more per beneficiary in Medicare Advantage than it does for beneficiaries in the original Medicare fee-for-service program, at an estimated additional cost to Medicare of $54 billion from 2009 through 2012.”