Medicaid Fraud

This was originally posted on PoodleRose on August 2, 2013. Comments have not been migrated.

An investigation by The Center for Investigative Reporting and CNN found that many clinics in California are grossly over billing the government under the Medicaid program, and promptly receiving payments for fictitious patients. As one example, investigators counted 30 patients entering one clinic on a particular day, but the clinic later billed the government for 179 patients. CNN.com reports:

Thousands of pages of government records and dozens of interviews with counselors, patients and regulators reveal a widespread scheme to bilk the state’s Medicaid system, the nation’s largest.

We should not be surprised when individuals seek to scam the Medicaid system and gain unearned payments. Medicaid itself is based on the premise that the poor should received medical care that they cannot pay for–care that they have not earned. When need supersedes rights, fraud will eventually enter the picture, and probably very quickly.

Under Medicaid, government officials seize the wealth of the productive and distribute that wealth as they deem proper. When such schemes are offered, a parade of parasites forms to get their share of the loot. If need is the criteria for redistributing wealth, the fraudsters are just as needy as the poor.

Just as we can be certain that entitlement programs attract fraudsters, we can also be certain that this report will motivate a series of “reforms” to crack down on fraud. But so long as the premise that need supersedes rights is embraced, Medicaid will be a magnet for those wanting a piece of the pie. The solution is not reform, but abolition of Medicaid and all entitlement programs.