FYI
Unemployment insurance is a state system with some federal funding. The amount of money a person receives as unemployment compensation is not fixed and varies a lot from state-to-state, as do the rules for eligibility. It should surprise no one that it is harder to get an unemployment check in red states, than blue states, and the worker doesn’t get as much.
While the national rate is currently around 10%, the unemployment rate in Florida is almost 12%. Florida’s dependence on the construction industry and growth has caused the state to swing from having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, to having one of the highest.
Everyone is in pain, except the pundits. It is just a sharper pain in some areas.
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How the pundits justify their very existence on the fringes of the world the rest of us inhabit, let alone pretend to tell us how any part of that world works, is a mystery to me. Yesterday I chatted with my octogenarian Democratic friend, who for several reasons gets almost all her news from cable TV. Mrs. M, who is neither ignorant nor very far from what most of us call progressive, was proudly proclaiming that most of the financial woes of Medicare were due to “waste and fraud.” Where, I asked, had she learned that? Why, on CNN, from… Andrea Mitchell. Ah, yes; the spouse of Alan Greenspan… she ought to be a trustworthy and reliable source on such matters… 🙄
.-= last blog ..Not Feeling Well =-.
Actually, Medicare has been behind a number of investigations and convictions for fraud. They actually pursue people who defraud them, while insurance companies don’t. Seemingly believing that if they go after fraud cases it will hurt their image and stock prices, they go after their customers but not the scam artists.
One of the news sites had a report on the absurd costs seen on hospital bills, and the insurance companies were paying without complaint obvious mistakes on the bill. Things like $1000 for a toothbrush, instead of the normal, but still absurd price of $10.00. A lot things were like that, missing decimal points.
The big savings in Medicare are in Parts C [Medicare Advantage] and Part D [drug coverage]. They both are industry giveaways and need attention. If you eliminate Part C and move Part D to the Tricare plan, everyone would save money – except the HMOs who infest Part C and big pharma that rakes it in from Part D.
I say that most of those creatures slithering around DC need to experience unemployment.
It would do my heart good to see them all applying for food stamps, Jill.
Well, gosh; I learn something every day if I’m not careful. I suppose the fraud does not surprise me, only the fact that Andrea Mitchell was right about something.
.-= last blog ..Not Feeling Well =-.
Actually, if she thinks that fraud and waste will solve the problem, she can’t tell the difference between “m” and “b”. Millions in fraud isn’t going to solve a problem that will be in billions. Medicare could be tighter, but that costs money and raises overhead. Too much emphasis yields diminishing returns, which is another reason insurance companies give for not pursuing fraud.