Yeah, I trust these guy's.
According to their own auditors, Medicare knowingly overpays for almost everything it buys. Examples include:
-- $7,215 to rent an oxygen concentrator, when the purchase price is $600.
-- $4,018 for a standard wheelchair, while the private sector pays $1,048.
-- $1,825 for a hospital bed, compared to an Internet price of $1,071.
-- $3,335 for a respiratory pump, versus an advertised price of $1,987.
-- $82 for a diabetic supply kit, instead of a $47 price on the Web.
Last year, the Health and Human Services Department tried to replace its archaic fixed-price fee schedule for 10 commonly purchased products with a competitive bidding program in 10 cities. The department said the program could save Medicare $125 million in a single year, or $1 billion if adopted nationwide. But Congress stepped in to stop it.
"One man's waste is another man's living, and whenever there is an effort put forward to actually make an efficiency, someone goes on the offensive and hires lobbyists and does what they can to constrain Congress from doing it."
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