Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) announced a novel proposal on Wednesday to cut Medicare spending: send 20-30 million $11 bath mats to Medicare recipients to prevent costly falls.
“I’m the Johnny Appleseed of bath mats. Whenever I go to see somebody and they don’t have one of these in their shower, I buy one and send it to them. Now here’s the proposal, though: why doesn’t CMS [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] send one of these to every Medicare recipient in the country,” said Sen. King.
“I did the back-of-the-envelope calculation; it would pay for itself in about nine months,” he added.
King apparently thought that the proposal was clever enough to be worth clipping for social media.
Instead of cutting down on the massive amounts of healthcare fraud exposed by The Maine Wire in his home state and by other reporters and outlets across the country, King’s idea would see CMS purchasing 20-30 million $11 bath mats in the hope that they stop enough falls that ultimately cost the taxpayer welfare programs more.
“Allow CMS to spend money on prevention, things like grab bars and bath mats. Right now, Medicare will pay for a broken hip, but they won’t pay for a grab bar in your shower; that’s just insane,” said King.
While in theory spending less on prevention to stop more costly medical expenses might make some sense, in pratice, allowing taxpayer funds to be spent on new types of items will likely open the program up for even more forms of fraud.
Bath mat companies could crop up nationwide to bill Medicare for products never produced or sold.
King’s initial estimate of 20-30 million $11 bath mats would cost $220-330 million.
Does Angus have a company that makes bath mats ?
Does his cousin ?
Back in the early 2000’s, King launched his expensive state lap top purchase for all public middle school students. Did it result in them being better educated? If so, then why are Maine public school students ranked dead last in the nation? (No doubt, the teachers unions are also at fault).
In @2011, King received a $102m loan guarantee from the DOE for his Record Hill wind project which was another abysmal waste of taxpayer money.
With such a dismal track record, why would this insufferable political hack think this bath mat purchase is a good idea? My guess is he’s looking a kickbacks…again.
INVESTORS ALERT :
Go buy stock in The Acme Bathmat Corporation .
Angus just bought a bunch of common shares .
Nancy Pelosi will be buying it soon .
Don’t miss out .
Who needs a bathmat when so many can’t afford to heat water to take a bath!!
They’ll call it :
Hot Water Insecurity .
Set up a commission of experts . Fund it with tax dollars .Pay everyone handsomely .
Another winning idea from Angus King .
angus king is an idiot.
Just another creepy Liberal Democrat snooping through people’s personal space for his own kicks. Just as bad as Graham Cracked in a port-a-potty
Term limits.
Another brilliant idea from China King. The mats would be made in China, like wind mills and solar which Angus was a lobbyist for.
Is he really sniffing a used bath mat? And there is no way those mats will cost the government $11, it will be more like $110, will need instructions on proper installation, use and disposal, lots of warning labels, causes cancer only in California etc.
About what you’d expect from an 82 year old hack.
Sounds like another somali business idea.
From lobster emojis to bathmats, King has you covered!
Are they Somali bathmats?
Why doesn’t Maine’s Anus pay for them himself with the tax money he’s acquired over the years through all his scams?
Too bad all of Kings calculations are done on the back of an envelope. Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is Anus, you can certainly afford it
Taxpayer Bath mats for all. What a great idea. Only a democrupt would dream up something so ludicrous. Then again a guy with tapioca pudding between the ears, not surprising. To think his prodigy might dictate similar idiotic ways to waste taxpayers money. There are enough low IQ voters in this state who believe it is indeed governments responsibility to by citizens bath mats.
Angus has a habit of envelope calculation lately. He figured out on the back of one that it would be cheaper to provide a homeless addict with a tiny home than to pay for his stay in prison. So he’s supporting the 9K program for tiny homes. He didn’t comment on the possibility of a trashed property and an addict who’s still using in the same time frame. The cost of treatment apparently didn’t enter into King’s equation.We do tend to seek simpler solutions as we age.
Just wondering: Are most broken hips the result of a bathmat slip? Most of us old people fall on
uneven ground or by tripping over things like curbs while actually iwearing shoes or on descending stairs or steps.
I’d like one of those bathmats, though. but for eleven dollars, I’ll buy it myself.