Career Politician Waxman To Retire

After cashing $4,300,000 worth of welfare checks Mr. Henry Waxman will retire next month from his position in Congress.  

So what was Waxman all about?

Texas' Biggest Welfare Recipients

Dr. Reuben Elovitz, Welfare Recipient 

Thankfully more researchers are sifting through the data on who collects Medicare taxes.  The Texas Tribune published a table of the greatest Medicare welfare recipients in Texas...

Medicare Data Shines Light on Billions Paid to TX Doctors

Highlights from the research:

• 342 Texas doctors were paid over $1 million by Medicare in 2012
• 20 doctors hauled in over $3 million annually from Medicare
• Missing context like doctor's costs and number of patients treated make the data incomplete

Who Collects That 3% Medicare Tax?

We've known for a long time exactly who pays the Medicare tax but thanks to newly released Medicare payment information we are able to confirm the primary collectors of Medicare taxes, namely doctors and medical equipment suppliers.  

I've written before about Medicaid and Medicare taxes being a subsidy for the U.S. healthcare industry.  Thanks to Bloomberg.com for providing a great chart breaking down the primary Medicare benefactors, check it out here.

The top five provider specialties haul in the bulk of the Medicare tax dollars.  The pack is led by internal medicine specialists which cost Medicare almost $9 billion in 2012.  Medicare taxpayers are supporting over 90,000 six-figure salary jobs among internal medicine doctors alone.

In addition to the run of the mill wealthy ($100,000 jobs) Medicare is supplying about 4,000 doctors with a cool million dollar annual paycheck.

Ask yourself who receives the greatest benefit from the Medicare tax?