Federal Marketing Programs
I spent 8 painful hours at my new practicum site today going through employee training. Among the endless information stream I was forced privileged to read, was DRA training. What, you might, ask is DRA training? Well, it's the act of Congress that gave Medicaid broader powers and greater funding to ferret out fraud. Fine. Whatever. I'm sure fraud exists. It's probably a good idea investigate and prosecute those defrauding the federal government taxpayers of their money. Though I must say that every time I get tangled in insurance red tape that is supposedly saving me money, I have to wonder how much money is being spent to sustain the bureaucratic system.
But what I found most interesting is what DRA stands for. It's the Deficit Reduction Act (of 2005). That has a much better ring that The Trimming Medicaid and Student Loan Subsidies Act doesn't it? Oddly enough, those were the only items on the table. Apparently the government isn't wasteful anywhere else. (co*ir*u*aq*gh) It's interesting that the White House fact sheet on the DRA doesn't mention boosting the budget for ensuring compliance and honesty. It makes no mention of how much fraud they believe exists. No mention of how much they anticipate recovering. I hope it's a lot. The budget for auditing heath care providers is 75 million. I guess the old axiom applies here: You've got to spend money to make money.
Utterly Clueless
On my way to the gym this morning, Jak (radio station) did its Celebrity Smack segment wherein they mentioned Ricky Martin's new status as father of twins…except that they failed to mention the surrogate mother and launched into some stupid parody of "Livin' La Vida Loca" talking about how this finally puts to rest rumors that he sleeps with men because he has now fathered children.
Okay, one, it doesn't take any special feat of manly prowess to impregnate a woman. All it takes is a boner and post-pubertal gonads. You don't have to be rich, smart, good-looking, famous, adult or even sober.
two, Heelloooo! Surrogate! Can you say "turkey baster?" It's a pretty sure bet Ricky didn't have intercourse with the woman. While there are probably a goodly number of women who wouldn't mind sex being part of the deal where Ricky is concerned, it's surrogacy, not prostitution.
three, while it may be some new fashion trend for famous, single men to use a surrogate to have children thus avoiding pre-nups and messy divorces (can you say "Paul McCartney?"), having children by a surrogate mother is not going to put rumors about Ricky's sexuality to rest. It's only going to add fuel to the fire.
Congratulations, Ricky. And if that hot fellow with whom you were recently photographed frolicking on the beach is more than just a good buddy, good luck to you both.