7 Comments

You mean “I got better” doesn’t work?

Bob

Let’s do away with insurance. Too many people are defrauding these private companies. Oops, I misspoke, this line of attack only applies to government programs.

Well, Allan, it could be that as businesses worry about fraud because it affects their other clients and customers.

Government, on the other hand, doesn’t care (or doesn’t care as much) as to rising costs or fraud. While a private company has to actually do something like make a profit, the government doesn’t even have to do that. While a private company has to deal with a competitive marketplace with other companies, the government doesn’t do that. While the rates for goods a private company are within a marketplace and fraud affects those rates, the government doesn’t have that worry. It doesn’t have to compete. It will just demand more at the point of the government sword.

Of course, if we are going to eliminate insurance from private companies, shouldn’t we first eliminate the laws that require insurance? Should governments demand that we carry vehicle insurance? Should the government demand that we carry health insurance?

But to answer your point more directly, if private companies aggressively go after fraud, why doesn’t the government? Private companies look at fraud to keep prices low. Why doesn’t the government?

I do believe that the government does go after fraud. And vigorously. That is why departments of education and agriculture have SWAT teams. Oops. That hits another sensitive topic.

I do believe that the government does go after fraud. And vigorously.

The amount of Medicare fraud is estimated at over $70 billion a year. Yet instead of going for that money and using it to fund health care for those without it, the government demanded a system where the fraud still exists and the honest citizen is paying more.

That hits another sensitive topic.

Yep. Because once again instead of addressing the issues of fraud, the government goes out and spends on superfluous gear and training that is not needed. That is more waste that doesn’t do a thing to stop fraud.

Allan-

I called my State Farm agent yesterday and he was so excited about the MRAP and body armor he received to help root out fraud.

[…] number of insurance-fraud cases in the state had reached an all-time high in 2013. The report (via Overlawyered) is mostly just numbers, but it does include two or three examples of now-closed cases, one of […]