Dead But Not Gone From Government Rolls

There’s the old joke (well, not really a joke in some cases) about dead people casting their ballots in elections. Now, it appears the dead are collecting taxpayer money in another example of government gone awry.

The National Center for Policy Analysis reported the following:

About $1 billion in taxpayer money goes to 250,000 deceased individuals, according to a review of reports by the Government Accountability Office, inspectors general and Congress itself.  How, might you ask?  According to Sen. Tom Coburn’s, R-Okla., office:

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.

But that’s not all, says the Washington Examiner:

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.