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

Capitalism and Healthcare Services, A Great Mix!

The Huffington Post tips it's hat to capitalism in India.  David Bank writes about free-market healthcare services:

The health care startups are driving down costs for eye care, dental care, preventive screenings and all manner of basic procedures in order to bring private health services to smaller cities and towns, and to the five-sixths of Indians with household income below 200,000 Indian rupees, or about $3,325 a year.

Only capitalism can provide high quality services at a low price.  Let's hope this trend towards economic freedom in India continues.

Check out Bank's full post titled "Investing in Private Health Care for All in India" here.

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?    

Is Practicing Medicine a "Right"?

Don Boudreaux has written a great article at Cafe Hayek titled "Who Licenses the Licensers?".  One important quote in the piece:

People are not generally stupid when spending their own money on themselves and their loved ones.

The right to offer medicine and healing services is literally a matter of life and death.  The state simply wants to promote that it is a privilege to practice medicine.

These propagandists are incorrect.  Doctors and nurses don't need to ask an agent of the state for permission to offer healthcare services to consenting adults.  

Medicaid is a Subsidy for the Healthcare Industry

The Weekly Standard published a report from the U.S. Senate Budget Committee about "welfare" recipients.  They wrote:

Food stamps and Medicaid make up a large--and growing--chunk of the more than 100 million recipients. "Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011...

But 54 million is a highly misleading figure.  It should be clear that sick people are not the primary benefactors of medicaid.