Medicare not working?

Oprah Winfrey once said that real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.

Compare that philosophy with its absence from the character and integrity of William McGuire, M.D., former chair of United Health Care who in 2005 was indicted by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service on charges of having fraudulently backdated millions of dollars worth of stock options.

In December of 2007, the SEC announced that in a partial settlement in the backdating prosecution Dr. McGuire would repay $468 million ($7 million of which was to be in civil penalties).

According to one campaign donor search engine from Oct. 15, 1992, through Oct. 9, 2006, Dr. McGuire donated $5,000 to United Health Group Political Action Committee (United For Health). In addition, he reportedly contributed $117,467 to Republican Party political candidates, and an additional $27,500 to special interest groups (including the $5,000 cited above).

In light of scenarios such as this, is it any wonder that recent health care reform town hall meetings across our nation have been so disrupted by those politicos opposed to the single payer health care option?

For the naysayers who fail to see either the advantages of or the potential savings from a single payer plan, I share a portion of the contents of a mailing titled “Medicare Summary Notice” which was sent to our home, accompanied by a check in the amount of $45.57. We received both today from Medicare. The memo reads: Of the total $45.47 paid on this claim, we are paying you $45.47 because you paid your provider more than your 20 percent co-insurance on Medicare approved services.

As Fred Flynn, PhD once shared with his Philosophy of Education Class at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, "... democracy works because of mankind's nobility; it is necessary because of our weakness."

Indeed, real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.

Tags: opinion, letter, marzolf