Medicare: $15B could have been saved if admin costs had been cut

[babylonsister]

Report: More Medicare Savings Possible

By KEVIN FREKING – 15 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seniors and other taxpayers could have saved nearly $15 billion this year if the government slashed administrative costs in the Medicare drug program and negotiated the same kind of discounts it does for poor people under Medicaid, Democratic lawmakers said Monday.

Currently, private insurance companies get a federal subsidy to administer a prescription drug plan, but their overhead costs are much greater than in traditional Medicare, the lawmakers said in a report issued Monday.

The lawmakers obtained proprietary data that's unavailable to the public for the 12 leading insurers offering Medicare drug coverage. Those plans cover more than 18 million elderly and disabled enrollees. The lawmakers said the plans' administrative expenses, including profits, were about six times higher than what's incurred through traditional Medicare.

Eliminating that difference would save taxpayers and beneficiaries nearly $3.9 billion this year, the lawmakers said in a report released by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The report also said taxpayers and beneficiaries would save billions more — about $10.7 billion in 2007 alone — if the private plans obtained discounts as large as those received in Medicaid.

more...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g5vhD79bUOhnuaKfqOPQ7n2fbdtgD8S9U37O5

[Lasher]

1. Part D is working as planned.

No big surprise here. Oops, looks like that data isn't proprietry anymore.

You would think that the GOP would try a little harder to at least make it look like they're not just throwing bales of taxpayers' money to the CEOs of big pharma and insurance companies.

[sutz12]

4. Don't forget the advertisers. nt

[Lasher]

5. Yet another example of ideology above all else.

Just gotta privatize everything, no matter what.

[pinto]

2. Yeah. As does the VA as well (negotiate drug prices).

[Toots]

3. Eliminating that difference would save taxpayers and beneficiaries nearly $3.9 billion this year

But that is two whole weeks of Iraq killing...Can't slow the killing to heal people. That wouldn't be a Conservative "value"