Friday, July 24, 2009

Newt Gingrich: Henry Waxman - fraud king


http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Henry-Waxman---fraud-king-8011982-51515927.html

Over his career, Waxman has never missed an opportunity to cut funds for anti-fraud efforts at the Department of Health and Human Services. He has consistently opposed introducing market-oriented competitive bidding in Medicare, which would greatly reduce massive fraud, particularly in the durable medical equipment space.

He also opposes efforts to promote transparency for providers of healthcare services, despite the fact that 98 percent of Americans believe they have the right to know cost and quality information. One would think that making it easier to know which hospital is more likely to kill you would be pretty non-controversial.

Waxman remains a vigorous opponent of account-based plans like Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements which are exploding in popularity because they give individuals more control and create the right incentives for smart shopping. Twenty million of these plans exist today because they work.

Eliminating the identity and citizenship requirements for enrolling in Medicaid is a recurring theme with Waxman. He is at it again with his current legislation. His bill would also prevent states from scaling back eligibility for Medicaid whether or not they can or want to afford it in the future. He also bans -- yes bans -- the purchase of individual private health insurance as of next January.

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