Last night I talked to my brother-in-law who lives in a southern state. His best friend works as a salesman at the local Ford dealership. His friend told him the government's processing system for claims was so screwed up they had to outsource it. I did some searching today and it seems to be true.
Here's the link:
[
link to libertyworks.com]
Here's the article:
Can The Clunker Guys Run Health Insurance?
August 3, 2009 | By BoomerJeff In Government incompetence |
As grim Congressmen and Senators face skeptical voters to explain their plans to vote for thousands of pages of legislation they have not read, to empower government officials to run the entire health care industry, the Cash for Clunkers program burst into the news just in time to provide some comic relief.ObamaCare-Clunker
By now most of us have heard Clunkers was in chaos after only a couple of days. Here’s a summary recent developments:
* Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Thursday that Clunkers would be suspended at midnight because in only three days the program had burned through it’s budget of $1 Billion.
* On Friday the White House contradicted LaHood and assured car dealers and buyers that the program was still alive.
* President Obama sprinted to the cameras to personally smear lipstick on the clunker hog:
“I’m happy to report that it has succeeded well beyond our expectations and all expectations, and we’re already seeing a dramatic increase in showroom traffic at local car dealers. “It’s working so well that there are legitimate concerns that the funds in this program might soon be exhausted.”
* Car Dealerships, while appreciative of free government money to help sell cars are becoming anxious. They’ve had to advance Clunker rebates to customers and then apply on line for reimbursement. But the website that’s supposed to accept their claims requires as many as twenty documents and apparently is overloaded, and is not functioning properly
* On Friday the National Automobile Dealers Association surveyed 2,000 dealers and found they were holding about 25,000 clunker rebate applications that had not yet been accepted through the dysfunctional computer system.
* With the website not accepting all claims, officials don’t actually know how many claims are out there, or how much money is owed to dealerships.
* On Friday the House of Representatives passed an emergency $2 Billion cash transfusion, enough to buy and destroy another half-million cars. The bill must also be passed by the Senate, but opposition is building and it’s fate is uncertain.
* On Sunday LaHood appeared on CSpan and was asked if the program would continue even if the Senate failed to pass the bill authorizing an additional $2 Billion. His answer:
Any deal that’s been made that’s in the pipeline…any deal where they filed the paperwork…uh…and we’re evaluating it…uh… and making adjustments…uh…any deal that’s in the pipeline will be paid.
So does “in the pipeline” mean the dealer has already submitted the claim to the balky computer system? What about the claims they haven’t been able to submit yet? And what are these “adjustments” to the dealer’s claim? LaHood’s answer would certainly not be very reassuring to a dealer who has put, say, $100,000 of her own money on the line, but hasn’t been able to submit the claims through the system.
* On Sunday a Department of Transportation spokesman passed the buck. It turns out the government outsourced clunker claims processing to Citigroup, the banking conglomerate that was already given more than $350 Billion in bailout cash because it was “too big to fail.” Apparently it wasn’t too big to fail it’s assignment to process Clunker claims. When asked by reporters for a reaction Nina Das, a spokeswoman for Citibank, said only:
“The DoT is pleased with the Citi partnership in this important effort.”
But Don’t Worry About Your Health!
When the Clunker guys in Congress turn over control of some 1,300 health insurance companies, plus the government’s new health plan, to “The Commissioner of Health Care,” Superior, government intelligence will ensure that:
* you don’t go without any needed medical treatment;
* you won’t be stuck on an endless waiting list;
* you won’t be denied care because you or your doctor or the nurse or the technician can’t access a computer system through a Citibank website;
* the company you paid your premiums to won’t run out of cash to pay your medical bills, even though it will be saddled with expensive new government mandates.
United States
