Kids and Health Care: The Standard of Political Impact

HHS's Office of Inspector General releases an annual audit of Medicare payments each March. During the late 1990s, these reports triggered a regular pattern of response that people who deal with health care issues agree sums up the political farce.

The pattern goes something like this:

• Congress expresses shock and outrage at the volume of improper billings and reimbursements...and then moves on to the next outrage.
• Health care industry spokesmen attack the report's methodology and worry loudly that opportunistic politicians will blame doctors for gouging patients.
• Medicare's bureaucrats announce new efforts to discourage improper billing and prosecute outright fraud and abuse.
• A few high-profile arrests take place, while doctors and hospital groups look on anxiously.
• Business goes on as usual.