During a recent evening as my wife and I were having after-supper tea, we stumbled onto a TV channel that featured a program called ‘Extreme Couponing.’ Women were spending many hours each week clipping coupons to save money on groceries and associated items. Intrigued by this contest that required meticulous planning because of discounted prices, double coupon values etc., we watched for perhaps a half hour.
These women, on their own and probably some networking had discovered ways to virtually get something for almost nothing! Although they spend 20 or 30 hours each week clipping coupons they are getting something of value at low (or no) cost. Getting free stuff (or almost free) using coupons, while time consuming is perfectly legal and offered by the manufacturers and merchants who issued the coupons
Millions of people hope to get ‘something for nothing.’ They play various forms of lottery while others bet on horses. The largest lottery sum in the U.S. was more than $600 million while a lottery in Spain paid out almost a billion dollars in 2012. The probability of winning the lottery is astronomical but there are those who spend their hard-earned money in hopes of hitting the jackpot to receive something on the cheap by buying lottery tickets or picking horses.
Random prize-winning usually depends on luck but many have discovered something for nothing is also available by guile. For example, in our system a woman can receive a plethora of benefits simply by having babies, no husband necessary. Millions receive lifetime government checks for sham disabilities and injuries. A healthy person can receive unemployment checks for years without actively seeking work. That same person can avoid training for available positions and remain unqualified for jobs indefinitely.
It’s a steep and improbable incline from money-saving coupons or playing the lottery to mischievous cheating to felonious fraud. In 2012 the Treasury Inspector General estimated that 21% to 25% of Earned Income Tax Credits were paid to ineligible recipients. Fallacious income reporting at this rate by ACA applicants for subsidies could escalate fraudulent healthcare subsidies by $25 billion a year.
In August 2013, federal agents arrested 75 suspects following a Social Security Disability fraud investigation in Puerto Rico. Suspected of involvement in this scheme were 71 claimants, three doctors and a former Social Security Administrator. Benefits to 6,600 people will probably be terminated based on the evidence collected. It is alarming that senior SS officials who were questioned about screening for disability benefits in 2011 stated that the process was ‘rigorous and accurate.’
In January of this year, more than 100 former policemen and firefighters in NYC were charged with bilking SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) out of more than $400 million over the past 20 years. An attorney and three confederates coached the hundreds of retired applicants on filling out forms to describe symptoms of anxiety and depression. These four accomplices collected from $20,000 to $50,000 from each of the recipients of the bogus payments.
Fraud doesn’t happen only in big cities by US citizens. The Comptroller of the Currency reports that 1.2 million fraudulent checks are written daily in the USA. The deposed president of the Saltville, VA (pop. 2,300) rescue squad received four years of protection from the outside world by iron bars. This 60-year-old guy was found guilty of healthcare fraud to the tune of $2 million for dishonest billings to Medicare for unnecessary services. Apparently Medicaid has paid for the cost of 58 of 63 childbirths over the past several years by Russian diplomats in NYC. These 49 former and current diplomats simply submitted falsified claims for pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal care.
The federal government, focusing on social justice, supports entitlements and apparently tolerates some extensions into fraudulent conduct. The feds paid $131.3 billion to disabled citizens and an unknown number of fraudsters in 2013. The billions of dollars of misspent taxes can never be recovered. It’s easier to raise taxes and collect votes than to close loopholes and investigate inscrutable activities.
– Dick Baynton