There’s a great op-ed in the Wall Stree Journal today by the Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt that’s required reading if you wonder why healthcare costs are so high. Basically, Medicare is wildly overpaying for medical equipment. A device that delivers oxygen through a tube to patients costs $600 on the open market. But through Medicare, taxpayers end up paying $7,142 to rent one for three years. Needless to say, lobbyists are involved.
It’s pretty refreshing when a politician in his position goes out of his way to point out a blatant example government waste, and has the guts to point the finger at Congress for perpetuating it.