Pres. Reagan's State of the Union speeches: on Health Care

Waste & fraud permeate every area of Medicare & Medicaid

Committee after committee of this Congress has heard witness after witness describe many of these programs as poorly administered and rife with waste and fraud. One example is Medicare and Medicaid--programs with worthy goals but whose costs have increased from $11 billion to almost $60 billion, more than 5 times as much, in just 10 years.

Waste and fraud are serious problems. Back in 1980 Federal investigators testified before one of your committees that "corruption has permeated virtually every area of the Medicare and Medicaid health care industry."

The time has come to control the uncontrollable. In August we made a start. I signed a bill to reduce the growth of these programs by $44 billion over the next 3 years while at the same time preserving essential services for the truly needy.