Sens. Coburn, Cornyn, Thune, McCain, and LeMieux HHS’ Inspector General to express “serious concern about the potential abuse of taxpayer dollars under the new health reform law…” The new federal health law dramatically expands Medicaid, significantly changes Medicare, creates substantial new mandates and regulations, and will send hundreds of billions of dollars to insurance companies. The Senators are concerned that this dramatic expansion of government spending will create significant vulnerabilities to waste, fraud, and abuse.

Furthermore, they are concerned that the fraud and waste provisions in the new law fail to address these vulnerabilities. In fact, the independent nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that over the next decade under the new law, only $6.7 billion dollars will be saved from fraud in Medicaid and Medicare.[1] We are very concerned that, under the new reform law, taxpayers and patients will continue to lose out to criminals who commit fraud.

Read the entire letter here.