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Saving The Big Entitlement Programs: Medicare, Medicaid, And SS

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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It is hard to believe that a big government program could be wasteful, but a new study shows that Medicaid spends too much money on drugs. It does not mandate the generics be used as often as it should, which research estimates could save the program as much as $500 million a year. According The Wall Street Journal, big drug companies have done a good job convincing doctors that patented drugs work better than generic versions.The President established a blue chip panel earlier this year to look at the federal budget over the next decade. He said “everything was on the table.” In the abstract, that may be true, but which members of Congress will be re-elected if they go to the constituents with plans to reduce Social Security payments?

The President has also talked about cutting $250 billion in discretionary spending over the next 10 years, but that is not much compared to the projected deficit for the period.

So, the effort to come up with ways to curtail the deficit is left to a group of former politicians who serve at the President’s favor. Unfortunately, the religion of identifying waste is based on eliminating programs and not making them more efficient. It is easier to face complex problems with an axe then a scalpel. The amount of work to be done  examining problems by studying the minutia is beyond the scope of any commission. It is a job for hundreds of analysts.

This President and the people who follow him have no chance of cutting entitlement programs payouts even though many admit that is the only way to bring down government costs as the population ages. But, the little study about the $500 million in overpayments for drugs could be replicated if someone has the will and ability to do it.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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