“Improper” Entitlement Payments: Why What GAO Found Matters to National Security

Scott Nason / April 13, 2011

In her testimony before Congress last month, Kathleen M. King, Director of Health Care at the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO), reported “improper payments” under the Medicare and Medicaid programs amounting to almost $70.5 billion for fiscal year 2010. According to the GAO, any payment was labeled “improper” if it “should not have been made or … was made in an incorrect amount.”

If there were any question as to the immense size of America’s entitlement programs, this piece of news should be very illuminating.

To put it in perspective, this amount is more than the combined spending for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State (excluding USAID) over the same time period.

Or consider that these “improper” payments are some 10 times the amount Congress authorized in FY 2010 for the Missile Defense Agency for activities vital to our national security.

King didn’t point fingers, and she did highlight efforts to try to reduce waste in the Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs. But it’s hard to ignore how big this “improper” use of taxpayer dollars is. Basketball player LeBron James, who earns over $45 million a year, would have to work 1,567 years to earn that much. (more…)