The PMA proposal to put us all into HMO's with co-payments at our expense is leading us down the path of ever increasing costs to us. It would require us to subsidize a bloated bureaucracy that pays its executives for extravagant squandering comparable to the CEO rip-offs in today's news.

Take for instance the example of Allina, Minnesota's largest HMO. Minnesota's Attorney General Mike Hatch did an exhaustive investigation of corruption there and found "extravagant administrative expenditures." He found that "administrative costs ranged from 17 to 44 percent of medical costs and that five of their branches charged Medicare twice as much in administrative costs as they should have. ..." 'Inappropriate charges to Medicare included expenditures on gifts for HMO employees like massages and golf games, lavish parties for employees, and tickets to sporting events."

The list goes on and on:

Trips for executives to Aspen and Vail, more than thirty trips to Hawaii, and more than 1,000 trips to California and Florida from 1998 to 2000;

Flights to Aruba, London, Paris, Venice, Grand Cayman, Amsterdam, Athens, Cancun, Los Cabos, Pago Pago, Puerto Vallarta and San Juan during those same years;

$18,000 worth of Minnesota Timberwolves season tickets for just one executive over three years, and $5,180 for Minnesota Twins season tickets in 1998 for another;

$1 million a year for a "turn around" specialist from California who worked part time and hired more California consultants to host parties for executives, and at which they watched the movie Twelve Angry Men to learn about group dynamics;

$70,000 company party, $10,000 of which was for a laser light show;

Thousands on food and drinks for eight Allina officials attending an 'ethics' seminar in Monterey, California, including $1,500 for one meal at the exclusive Club XIX overlooking the 18^th hole of the Pebble Beach Golf Course."

There is more, but we have run out of space.