Political Quotes

“as the Congress grapples with the problem of maintaining the solvency of the Medicare program and with proposals to expand Medicare coverage, we must not overlook a critical problem that threatens the financial integrity of this vital social program, which provides health care services to 38 million older and disabled Americans. I am talking, Mr. President, about the problem of waste, fraud and abuse in this program. The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, has undertaken an extensive investigation into Medicare fraud. At our first hearing last summer, we learned from the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services that an astounding $23 billion a year is lost to waste, fraud, abuse and other improper payments. In more recent hearings, Mr. President, we discovered that career criminals, with absolutely no background in health care, were able to be certified as Medicare providers and enter the system for the sole purpose of ripping it off.”