WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Government health spending wastes "a heck of a lot of money," U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said during a bipartisan summit on healthcare reform Thursday.
Biden also agreed with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in his assessment that a third of Medicare funding "goes for nothing useful."
"Everybody also agrees -- I got from this morning -- but I think we have before, that Senator Coburn is right that we waste a heck of a lot of money, and that somewhere around a third of all of the dollars we spend on Medicare goes for nothing useful," Biden said when introducing discussion on healthcare reform and deficit reduction.
Increased healthcare costs over the last decade "wrecks budgets" for families and state and federal governments, the vice president said during the summit at Blair House in Washington.
Congressional members recognize that the $919 billion spent on Medicare and the federal portion of Medicaid would jump to $1.7 billion in 2019 "if we don't do something to bend the (cost) curve," he said.
