And you want government-run universal health care?

The General Accounting Office decided to test Medicare. They set up two sham companies and applied to Medicare for billing privileges. They got them, even though GAO investigators deliberately gave sketchy information and provided false documents. The GAO is concerned, because once a company gets billing privileges, it can pretty easily get a doctor's ID code and begin submitting claims.

According to the GAO, roughly $1 billion of the $10 billion in annual Medicare payments for medical equipment and labor is not legitimate. My calculator won't even go to a billion! The inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2006 that almost one-third of the 1,581 medical suppliers it visited in south Florida had no offices at the addresses submitted to Medicare. Think if your doctor is dead he can't treat you anymore? Think again. Medicare paid out approximately $93 million based on equipment prescriptions from dead doctors. (I don't know what time period that covers -- the article didn't say).

And we want the government to take over health care for everybody!

"Medicare fell for fake billing test GAO staged." The Dallas Morning News; August 4, 2008; p. 4A.