Government health care spends $1,200 on a crappy wheelchair when $400 would have bought a really nice one.
Hard to believe, I know…I don’t want to shatter anybody’s faith in Big Daddy Government, here. But:
Debbie Brown used to process medical and dental forms for a living before a debilitating illness forced her into early disability retirement and left her in a simple, no-frills wheelchair — a rented wheelchair that has cost taxpayers about $1,200.
Brown says the public should be outraged about her wheelchair.
Why? She says she could buy a comparable wheelchair on the Internet for $440 if she had the money. It sounded hard to believe that her rented, $1,200 taxpayer-funded wheelchair could be bought for $440, so CNN decided to check — and instead found an even better deal.
Lot of talk in the story about how to reform that particular sort of problem, but…hey, if you want government to provide more, then government has to get bigger. The bigger the bureaucracy, the more waste and inefficiency you’re going to get.
Be honest, all you health care reformers! Tell us this is okay with you!
Comments are closed.
I am also angry at these companies are out there to bankrupt our medicare/medicaid system. At the same time, medicare is ran by “brainless” people whom are willing to pay thousand of dollars a month on rental wheelchairs or hospital beds. At the same time they are cutting payment to primary care physicians who are trying to give care to complicated medicare patients. We have no choice to use one of these company once patient is ready to discharge from the hospital. I wish they could use more daily common sense. But the truth is the truth. And these home care provider companies are taking advantages of our brainless system.
How to cut healthcare costs? Easy – just check who is making the big profits. Then eliminate all the HBOs, insurance companies and all the other big business parasites in their shiny new office buildings who don’t actually treat patients or provide medicines but who are making billions off of the health care of American citizens – or just tax them at 90% to pay for universal health care for all citizens.
Healthcare in the US is controlled by greedy un-regulated (“free market”) big business profiteers like HBOs and insurance companies who are only interested in making lots of money for their bottom lines and paychecks and to hell with stupid US consumers.
The healthcare ‘industry’ is the only one still making billions in profits in this economy.
Unfortunatly, US politicians, on both sides, are controlled by big money.
This is the most one sided article I may have ever read. Here are the facts that Mr. Griffin does not want you to know. Home Medical Equipment companies are going out of business because of not being able to make a profit. American Home Patient has 350 stores nationwide and declaired bankruptcy several years ago. In the last quarter of 2008 they lost 6 million dollars. In the first quarter of 2009 they lost 4.5 million dollars. Apria which is the largest provider of Home Medical Equipment in the Nation has only been able to achieve a 5 percent profit. Both of these companies are public and the salaries and bonuses and expenses are public information. They are well managed and their executives are not overpaid. If the medical equipment companies are getting rich, then why is no one interested in buying a medical equipment company. Sleazy reporters such as Drew Griffin are looking to write articles that inflame. He is not interested in the truth. Home Medical Equipment represents 1 percent of healthcare. Home Medical Equipment keep people at home and help prevent the need for them to go to Nursing Homes. Home Health Care is part of the solution to the health care crisis. IT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT THE PROBLEM. Why are Home Medical Equipment companies going out of business? Why is the stock of Home Medical Equipment dealers and manufacturers on a downward trend and has been for years. The truth is that the Drew Griffins of the world are either stupid or cruel. They are definately not interested in the truth. The article was misleading. What about these facts: A Medical Equipment Company has to keep the product in stock, has to meet government regulations, has to be accredited with trained personnel, has to maintain repair facilities, has to maintain inventory, has to chase medical documentation, has to bill insurance companies, has to deliver, and has to maintain/repair the item for the entire time the patient has the item. How about the fact that the Home Medical Equipment Company has to wait months, at times, to get paid. How about the fact that the government is forcing the Home Medical Equipment Companies to rent the equipment and when the equipment disappears because it is lost or stolen, the Home Medical Equipment Company has to eat the loss. If the Home Medical Equipment Companies are getting rich, then why are you not in the business. The price from the internet are for cash and no ongoing support. The price on the internet is the cost that most Medical Equipment Companies have to pay for the product themselves. Did the guy on the internet give the patient with no insurance a free wheelchair when it was needed? I doubt it. But, the Home Medical Equipment Company provides free equipment on a regular basis. Before you buy off on an idiot journalist just looking for headlines, you might want to follow Paul Harvey and get “The Rest of the Story”