As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fight over who will create the largest Government run health care plan, New Jersey has reminded us what the consequences are to State run programs. As the State struggles to pay for health care for the poor and uninsured, a recent audit has uncovered wasteful spending, and gross incompetence.

The reviews by the state auditor found people earning as much as $295,000 enrolled in a program designed to help low-income working parents receive health care.

They also found the state failing to properly oversee medical equipment buys and revealed the state Division of Criminal Justice has subpoenaed records from a state Medicaid program that paid a contractor to sanitize and refurbish medical equipment, even though the contractor only inventoried new equipment.

If you recall the SCHIP debates, you will remember that Democrats were arguing the expansion of the program was necessary to cover “families in need”. They claimed an additional $30 billion would be necessary to insure the children who need it. As always, rather than attempting to lower costs in an effort to provide for more people, the solution was to throw more money at the problem.

Had an attempt been made to lower costs, here are just a few items that would have been found in New Jersey:

• About 13,000 NJ FamilyCare participants weren’t sent renewal applications, though regulations require eligibility be determined annually. The audit found $43.1 million was paid to these participants from July 2005 to September without knowing if they remain eligible.
• The state failed to try to collect $4.6 million owed to NJ FamilyCare by 16,300 people
• The state paid $2.1 million from July 2005 to December for medical equipment that should have been paid for by nursing facilities.
• The state is failing to monitor medical equipment providers. For example, it found a provider billed the Medicaid program $30,000 for 48,000 adult incontinence briefs, though the audit found only 10,000 briefs were purchased. Auditors said they’ve referred this and other examples to state criminal investigators.
• The state isn’t properly calculating Medicaid reimbursements. For instance, auditors found the state paid $8,181 for a wheelchair that should have cost $5,705.

“The audit’s findings are very troubling,” said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris. “They call into serious question the state’s competence to run health insurance programs.”

I believe this is an understatement. The fact is, the State is not competent to run health insurance programs for a very simple reason. Those placed in charge of administering it have no vested interest. While health insurance companies are demonized for refusing to pay for certain procedures, is there a doubt in anyone’s mind that a private insurance company would not have paid $8,181 for a wheelchair that costs $5,705? Do you believe a private insurance company would have paid $2.1 million for medical equipment without first investigating wether it was their responsibility to pay, and not the nursing facilities?

State legislators have a long history of reckless spending because they lack respect for the taxpayer money which they are spending. The saying money doesn’t grow on trees holds untrue for government officials as they believe that anytime they need money that simply have to raise taxes.

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Election 2008, Features, Health Care, Politics