Thanks for the article … and thanks for putting me in touch with Amy. I think we’ll be able to work something out.

+ Government administered health care cost taxpayers $754 billion in 2007, according to the government (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/tables.pdf).
+ According to a recent 60 Minutes report (http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5419933n&tag=related;photovideo), Medicare and Medicaid fraud totals $90bn per year, and is so easy ‘a fifth grader’ could perform it.
+ $90bn of fraud out of $754bn means that roughly 12 cents for every healthcare dollar currently managed by the government is wasted – and that is irrefutable waste.
+ The waste figure is probably actually a lot higher – fraud of the VA, DOD, and other government-run healthcare isn’t included in the 60 Minutes numerator, but the cost is included in the NHE denominator. Add in needless testing and surgeries, as well as the fact that the government spending numbers include a lot more than medical claim payments (e.g. bloated beurocracy, some (but clearly not enough) budget to investigate fraud, etc.) and there’s no telling how high it could be.
+ But let’s just use the math in front of us – $90 billion in fraud on $754 billion in spend. That means that every time the government spends 8 dollars on healthcare, a dollar is stolen.

If I sent a child to the store to buy food to feed my family, but every 8th day he came back from the store with nothing (due to any number of factors), would my best course of action would be to:
a. take measures to ensure that the chances of the child returning empty-handed were greatly reduced? or
b. give the child twice as much money from now on, and hope for the best?

Not to oversimplify – there are people out there who need health coverage who can’t get it or can’t afford it, and we need to cover those people (as long as they want to be covered, and are legally in the country – or can prove that they’re making good faith efforts to gain legal status).

But the government has proved itself singularly unable to administer the current government-run healthcare system effectively, after having had 50 years to tinker with it. So what we don’t need is the government to step in, take more control, and lose more taxpayer dollars to fraud.

What they can do is come up with a stop-gap plan for those who don’t qualify for Medicaid and those left uninsured due to pre-existing conditions. That will be a much smaller, more manageable program, possible by simply expanding Medicaid, and cost a heck of a lot less.

That will buy the government time to get serious about the business of running a healthcare system. Reduce fraud to <1%. Then come ask taxpayers to give them more money for universal healthcare. Maybe then we'll listen.

When choosing “not the incumbent,” I guess voters identify more easily with a “fat guy” than one who “looks too French.” Which is unsurprising, since 23% of NJ adults are obese or overweight, according to the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, while relatively few are of French ancestry…

This is true of both parties – tho the Dems have, historically, been better at it. And this is why, even though we’re taxed higher than any state in the country – we rank at or near the top in all of property, sales, and income taxes – and even though he’s done slightly more than jockey (unsuccessfully) for federal appointments, the smart money says Corzine will be re-elected. By a wide margin.