Sunday, February 12, 2006

State Auditor highlights DSHS Medicaid expenditures

As reported here, the Washington State Auditors office will be releasing their audit report of Medicaid medical expenditures made by the Department of Social and Health Services, calling into question some of the expenditures.

Some examples are: Sex change operations; penile implants and/or repair of implants; breast augmentations; and - now get this - two cases of women getting their ears pierced! Medicaid, which is for poor and elderly folks who need medical treatment that they cannot afford, is rife with abuse, wasting billions of taxpayer dollars, and yet State Medicaid Director Doug Porter defends all of the expenditures as being medically necessary, and therefore allowable, adding that given Medicaid's multibillion-dollar budget, hundreds, even thousands of dollars that might go unaccounted for are immaterial.

I like State Auditor Brian Sonntag's reply to that ludicrous position - "Immaterial to who?" Sonntag said. "To taxpayers and in my work, any amount is material." [Emphasis added]

Now, just to be clear, I am not a doctor, and I have not read the report (it won't be released until March, at the earliest), but I do know - through common sense - that getting one's ears pierced is not, I repeat NOT, a medical necessity!

Another example of our tax dollars at work.

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