Zombie payments

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has just released a new report on the payments by the U.S. government to over 250,000 deceased individuals--$1.1 Billion of that was to farmers. The title is Federal Programs to Die for. This is a decade long report, so it spans both the Bush and Obama administrations, however, the failure belongs to Congress which has oversite over these Agencies which have misspent the money.

"Since 2000, the known cost of these payments to over 250,000 deceased individuals has topped $1 billion, according to a review of government audits and reports by the Government Accountability Office, inspectors general, and Congress itself. This is likely only a small picture of a much larger problem. Among the agencies making payments to the deceased:

• The Social Security Administration sent $18 million in stimulus funds to 71,688 dead people and $40.3 million in questionable benefit payments to 1,760 dead people.

• The Department of Health and Human Services sent 11,000 dead people $3.9 million in assistance to pay heating and cooling costs.

• The Department of Agriculture sent $1.1 billion in farming subsidies to deceased farmers.

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development overseeing local agencies knowingly distributed $15.2 million in housing subsidies to 3,995 households with at least one deceased person.

• Medicaid paid over $700,000 in claims for prescriptions for controlled substances written for over 1,800 deceased patients and prescriptions for controlled substances written by 1,200 deceased doctors.

• Medicare paid as much as $92 million in claims for medical supplies prescribed by dead doctors and $8.2 million for medical supplies prescribed for dead patients.

• Congress has established HIV/AIDS funding distribution based on historic numbers of deceased HIV/AIDS patients, while many individuals living with AIDS desperately wait for medical care."

Since almost 72,000 deceased individuals got the $250 stimulus check through the Social Security Administration, I guess I shouldn't worry that I got one, even though I don't get a Social Security check.