For the latest silly use of tax money, let's consider this summary from the New York Times about the US using mystery shoppers "to pose as patients, call doctors’ offices and request appointments to see how difficult it is for people to get care when they need it."
What's the rationale for this?
The administration says the survey will address a “critical public policy problem”: the increasing shortage of primary care doctors, including specialists in internal medicine and family practice. It will also try to discover whether doctors are accepting patients with private insurance while turning away those in government health programs that pay lower reimbursement rates.
Oh, please. For years, the government has been systematically underpaying primary care doctors relative to others, as part of a deeply flawed process of rate-setting. Let's start with that as a "critical public policy problem."
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