A while back, I opted in to the free Covid-19 at home rapid antigen test delivery, which was to provide me with eight tests. Clearly, I did not know what I was getting into! Now, I am inundated with piles of tests. Five’ll get you ten that each time I go to the mailbox, I’ll find a white plastic envelope filled with a bunch of Covid tests, each one coming from different suppliers in different parts of the country. They know where the money is, and they drank from the government fountain in big gulps.
I now have a stockpile of the damn things, although I have discarded many due to passed expiration dates. I expect that I will dump all of those in the photo within the next three months. Waste, fraud, abuse. All three words seem to apply here.
Huzzah! Huzzah! Pandemic Emergency is Over!
Now that the Pandemic Emergency is over, Medicare will no longer pay for over-the-counter tests not prescribed by a doctor. So, the gravy train for profiteering pharmaceutical suppliers and for the Chinese companies manufacturing the tests is now permanently at the station, and will be retired from service.
Quite noticeably, the suppliers amped up their deliveries once news of the cessation of Pandemic Emergency measures was announced. I received three shipments in the past week. According to my Medicare Claims Summary, Medicare paid $94.08 for each shipment. As of September 2022, over 65 million people actively received Medicare benefits. If even ten percent of these people opted in to the free Covid-19 at-home test program, each shipment would cost us taxpayers $611,000,000. I received three such shipments in the past week, and I don’t doubt that others in the program were similarly endowed. Do the math and have a wastebasket handy to throw up in.
Here, we have yet another institutionalized gross waste of taxpayer money, thanks to the past two administrations and our ever-loving, spendthrift Congress. One thing we can always count on is that Washington will waste huge piles of our money on useless things no matter who is in power.
The late Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois is famously quoted as saying, “A billion here, a billion there… pretty soon, you’re talking about real money!”
Disgusting.
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drozz says
gubmint money firehose easy to turn on. almost impossible to turn off.
The Nittany Turkey says
I don’t think they (Medicare/CMS) give a rat’s ass about waste, fraud, and abuse. They make reporting fraudulent activity almost as difficult as fighting with the IRS. They staff buffer zones with volunteers who are happy to answer questions about how to file claims for services, but that is where they top out.
As a recent NPR article pointed out, I am not alone in being inundated with Covid tests from three or four different crooked pharmaceutical distributors. Who knows where they got my information so they could bill Medicare? I only share the Medicare account number with medical providers who are well known to me. I guess all it takes is one crooked employee who is willing to sell private information to the Russian mafia.
I’d rather be watching football.
—TNT
drozz says
SOON.
PSU win total is 9.5 (-135). I like the over.
The Nittany Turkey says
Formerly formidable WVU is a soft opener, and the Blue Hens are even softer. Illinois could surprise in Champaign. Iowa is always tough but at Beaver Stadium this year. NWU and UMass are a couple more pushovers before tOSU at the horseshoe. Regardless of tOSU’s quarterback controversy, anything less than a flawlessly superb performance will net a loss in Columbus. The remaining schedule after tOSU likely holds at least one loss. So, I’m thinking 9.5 is a good number. I believe the under is the better bet with an untested rookie at QB and missing Joey P. on defense.
I’ve been too lazy to write anything about the season ahead. Thanks for waking me up.
—Rip Van Turkey