The AP story “Medicare, Social Security in nosedive from economy” on the front page of the May 14 Columbian regarding the exhaustion of Medicare and Social Security trust funds is missing a huge piece of the problem: fraud. The story states that Medicare and Social Security are being hit with a double whammy: retiring baby boomers and weaker than expected tax receipts. Factor in the billions of dollars being lost to fraud and we have a triple whammy. Before Congress imposes tax increases or cuts benefits we need to ask them what is being done to eliminate fraudulent claims and payments.
Sue Wilson
Vancouver
