Hooray for the efficiency of the private sector!
"Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Insurance companies offering Medicare-funded prescription drug plans are costing U.S. taxpayers almost $15 billion a year in excess administrative fees and pharmaceutical costs, a congressional study found.
The study released today also found insurers fail to pass on $1 billion a year in discounts from drugmakers to participants in Medicare, the U.S. health program for the elderly and disabled.
``The use of private insurers to deliver Medicare drug coverage is driving up costs and producing only limited savings on drug prices,'' said Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The panel's Democratic staff prepared the analysis.
This really drives the point home doesn't it? While our conservative friends extol the virtues of the private sector to govern our health care, we find out that we're paying $15 billion dollars worth of "excess administrative fees and pharmaceutical costs".
And they have the nerve to criticize Michael Moore for being out of touch?
Lemme see, $15 billion - oh yeah, that's two years of that SCHIP funding that Chimpy vetoed. But of course, it's "socialized medicine" so it wouldn't work, no sirree.
Grrrr.... and impeachment is STLL off the table?!
(Oops, h/t to Ezra Klein for beating me to it)