The new National Health Care program being pushed through by the Obama Administration and his party loyalists in Congress would be just another high risk program. The creation of this health care program will put the country at risk for further misuse and abuse of tax payer money. This would be just another program for the Federal Government to mismanage. The current oversight of the Medicare and Medicaid programs is a testament to the Federal government’s lack of proper management of health care programs.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) periodically puts out a report on Federal programs that are of high risk of fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. Two of the programs on the current list are Medicare and Medicaid.

http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/featured/highrisk.html

Medicare has been designated a high risk program for 19 years; Medicaid for 6. The government cannot even manage these two programs, how can the American people trust our elected officials to properly manage a larger and broader program.

The broad health care program being peddled in Washington will not reduce the cost of health care. The Congressional Budget Office, the federal agency responsible for government budget calculations and analyses, does not support the belief that expanding Medical Insurance Coverage will reduce costs. Rather, the most dominate reason for increase in medical costs is actually dispensing of medical services.

“… (the) most important factor contributing to the growth in health care spending in recent decades has been the emergence, adoption, and widespread diffusion of new medical technologies and services”

America is over treated, over medicated, and fundamentally uninformed about medical services. Too often, patients are prescribed medication stronger than necessary to cure an ailment. Too often, people rush to an emergency room to receive non-emergency medical attention. Too often, unnecessary or ineffective treatments and tests administered. These are the factors that are driving up health costs.

The politicians in Washington who are clamoring for a national health care program would have you believe that expanding health insurance is the solution. The real solution is a knowledgeable and healthy population. Efforts need to be made to encourage a healthier lifestyle and a broader understanding and awareness of health treatments. A prime example of this is the ongoing reduction of people who smoke. Untold millions of dollars are being saved as less people continue to smoke. Public and private campaigns to reduce smoking have been overwhelmingly successfully. We need to apply these tactics to other health issues.

Instead of creating a larger National Health Care plan, the federal government needs to fix the current Medicaid and Medicare programs it is running. Furthermore, more efforts need to be put forth to educate the populace on the costs of health care, as well as, the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. If President Obama’s new health care plan is implemented, what we have effectively allowed the government to do, is create a larger broader program that is effectively Medicaid and Medicare but with a different name. Additionally this program will be just as mismanaged as its predecessors. We can expect the GAO to classify it as another High Risk Program…Yay.