If you’re tempted to buy the argument for “reforming” health care by putting government in charge of it all, read this News & Observer story first. This will make you sick when you realize how much taxpayer money was simply wasted. Meantime, state legislators say they need more of our money and they’re preparing to hike taxes to get it.
The state wasted $635.3 million on community mental health services because of poor planning and monitoring by the state Department of Health and Human Services, according to a report presented to legislators Monday.
The $635 million amounts to about 25 percent of the $2.4 billion spent on new community services from April 2006 to February 2009. Medicaid, the government health insurance program, paid most of the costs. The state picks up about one-third of the bill for Medicaid, which means, according to the report, that $226.2 million in state money was wasted.
Meantime, JLF’s John Hood writes today about the fate of the state’s mental health programs.
