Politico is reporting that “House Democrats are probing the nation’s largest insurance companies for lavish spending, demanding reams of compensation data and schedules of retreats and conferences.”
Who is one of the major players driving this investigation? None other than Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Who is one of the major players driving this investigation? None other than Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Surprise, surprise.
Given the economic make-up of Congressman Waxman’s congressional district, you’d think he would have more than enough “lavish spending” and “schedules of retreats” of which to investigate.
Nope.
Politico continues its report:
Letters sent to 52 insurance companies by Democratic leaders demand extensive documents for an examination of ‘extensive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry.” The letters set a deadline of Sept. 14 for the documents.
Oddly enough, there’s plenty of work for Mr. Waxman without probing insurance companies or his district. It’s called Medicare.
Over his career, Waxman has never missed an opportunity to cut funds for anti-fraud efforts at the Department of Health and Human Services. He has consistently opposed introducing market-oriented competitive bidding in Medicare, which would greatly reduce massive fraud, particularly in the durable medical equipment space.
He also opposes efforts to promote transparency for providers of healthcare services, despite the fact that 98 percent of Americans believe they have the right to know cost and quality information. One would think that making it easier to know which hospital is more likely to kill you would be pretty non-controversial.
So why is Mr. Waxman so interested in how private companies spend their money and apathetic to the significant fraud inherent in Medicare – a program that falls well within his Committee’s oversight role?
This nonsensical probe only serves to reinforce the public’s perception of Congress as being out of touch.
Pay attention, Detective Waxman.
