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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mac Con Ulaidh who wrote (59986)	8/2/2009 4:32:04 PM
From: Little Joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

You obviously ignored the part of my post where I suggested we could extend medicaid and cover the problemm of those who can't pay for insurance. As far as your disagreement regarding the government. I am a realist, while there are some things the government needs to do. Military, police, post office (required by Constitution) there is not one thing that I think it does well. Not one thing. Maybe you believe otherwise, but I don't think I could ever be convinced of that. lj

To: Mac Con Ulaidh who wrote (59986)	8/2/2009 5:19:29 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

About that overhead claim, Medicare actually contracts out its work to contractors: As government agencies go, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is not a very large organization, about 4100 employees. Mostly they contract out the actual work via Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs). According to their website "CMS plans to award a total of 19 MAC contracts through three procurement cycles. Fifteen of these contracts will be with entities that will cover the majority of Part A and Part B services, i.e., A/B MACs." [http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareContractingReform/07_PartAandPartBMedicareAdministrativeContractor.asp]. A pdf with the MAC jurisdictions and description of contractors is available in [http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareContractingReform/Downloads/PrimaryABMACJurisdictionFactSheets.pdf]. Here's one of the contractors: Trailblazer Health Enterprise is a private company categorized under Health Services and located in Dallas, TX. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $100 to 500 million and employs a staff of approximately 500 to 999. manta.com You can be sure that Trailblazer Health Enterprise is a profit making company and has its own administrative burden - for things like Information Systems, HR, Law, Facilities Mgmt, Accounting, Payroll, you name it. Just like any insurance company. But Trailblazer's profit margin and administrative burden - its not part of that 3% that people talk about. Medicare doesn't even know what Trailblazer's admin burden and profit margin are.