Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 14, 1994 TAG: 9404150060
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray L. Garland
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's almost certain Congress will pass something and call it health reform before it adjourns to meet the voters Nov. 8. President Clinton probably doesn't care a lot about the final form the bill takes because the principle of government management will be established and you can always go back for second helpings.
I read three newspapers every day, clipping judiciously. As the day to settle with Uncle Sam approaches - and as we contemplate a vast expansion of federal mandates - it might be helpful to consult the file marked "Boondoggles" to see what past good intentions have wrought.
In 1992, the Defense Department released a study of more than 500 patients - mainly military dependents - admitted to psychiatric hospitals. In 64 percent of the cases, it reported, patients never should have been admitted, or were kept longer than necessary, or their treatment could not be justified from the medical records. Mark well the Clintons' insistence that national health provide generous coverage for mental illness, etc.
Federal prosecutors in Miami recently cracked a ring of doctors and health-care companies and charged them with cheating Medicaid out of $14 million through phony billings for nutritional supplements and feeding tubes. The group allegedly paid recruiters up to $100 per patient to find elderly people and funnel them to the doctors, who certified - sometimes without seeing the person - they needed the services. Mark well the Clintons' insistence that national health provide generous coverage for home treatment.
Then, there was the recent FBI sweep of pharmacies in more than 50 cities focusing on fraudulent insurance billings. As more than 1,000 FBI agents were said to be involved, it would be interesting to know what this investigation and prosecution will cost taxpayers. Mark well the Clintons' insistence that national health cover prescriptions.
In trying to right old wrongs, Congress created a program of contract set-asides for firms owned by American Indians. The FBI investigated 74 firms qualifying for this gravy train of assured federal business and found only nine to be legitimately controlled by real Indians! Shut the program down? "Oh no," they cried in unison, "all it needs is more oversight."
And just the other day it was revealed that another special entitlement for Indians had gone sour. Under federal law, the Bureau of Indian Affairs can lend and give surplus military equipment to tribes. But the bureau apparently never checked to see what happened to the stuff. Enter the FBI and federal prosecutors to suggest that more than $50 million of surplus equipment had been stolen and sold to outsiders.
One of the most sacrosanct federal programs is set-asides for black and Hispanic firms, under which $19 billion in government contracts was awarded from 1987 to 1993. But The Associated Press found only 13 percent of the contracts went to firms actually located in black-majority or Hispanic-majority neighborhoods.
In the $6 billion-a-year federal student-loan program, those attending private, for-profit vocational schools have a 41 percent default rate. The Department of Education proposed paying them on the basis of actual job placements, but that was rejected by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
Meanwhile, another Senate committee was investigating some 36 Orthodox Jewish schools in New York City for irregularities in handling federal Pell grants. Of 2,000 students enrolled in one school, 97 percent got Pell grants - mostly the maximum of $2,400 a year. Many of the "students" were said to be elderly Russian immigrants who were given $200 a semester in cash, which federal prosecutors were treating as a kickback for the Pell grant the school cashed in their name. One prosecutor said, "There's no real monitoring of the federal funds."
Of food-stamp fraud it would be kinder, perhaps, not even to speak. But as space runs out here's a quick review of the leads from some recent discouraging news:
Rand Corp. study for Department of Education: "Despite a $6.1 billion budget, the federal government's largest program to raise academic achievement among poor and minority students is failing."
"A program intended to retrain workers who lose jobs because of increased imports instead has been used largely for unemployment benefits, a Labor Department study said."
"Convicts who jump bail or who violate parole or probation can legally collect welfare benefits while lying low ... the government can't do a thing about it.`
"Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, the federal Department of Health and Human Services penalized a hospital in Westchester County, N.Y., for preventing an HIV-positive pharmacist from preparing intravenous solutions, even though the hospital offered the pharmacist another position where there was far less danger of transmitting the disease."
Finally, some news that may cheer you. In the fiscal year ending last Sept. 30, the federal government spent an average of $4,599 for every American. Virginia, home to many federal agencies and military facilities, ranked third in the nation. Federal disbursements in our state amounted to $6,803 per citizen.
Unless your family of four is paying $20,000 a year in federal taxes, you're being subsidized. There's no larger point here than this: The road we've decided to take is well-marked with warnings of potential hazards ahead, but turning back is next to impossible. Even slowing down is hard.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
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President Clinton probably doesn't care a lot about the final form the health-care reform bill takes because the principle of government management will be established and you can always go back for second helpings.
by CNB