Josh First's Blog

How ObamaCare is directly funding the Democratic Party. Good Government? Fair?

‘Healthy’ Democrats

By BETSY McCAUGHEY
New York Post
Posted: 10:36 PM, June 25, 2013

If you have to keep it a secret, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.

California is trying to keep secret how it spends $910 million in federal taxpayer money granted by the Obama administration to set up its health-insurance exchange, Covered California.What we’ve learned so far about the misuse of that money should raise red flags in all states setting up exchanges — including New York.

In California,some of the $910 million is going for rich compensation packages for exchange employees ($360,000 a year for the executive director). More than half the funds are being handed out in contracts to third parties, and the lion’s share of those contracts are for what the exchange terms “outreach.” In truth, the money is going to build Democratic Party enrollment.

Amazingly, the California state legislature passed a law that allowed the exchange to keep secret for a year who received the contracts and indefinitely how much they were paid. This month Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and four other senators called for an investigation of California’s concealing information on contracts awarded using federal taxpayer money.

What is known so far suggests that California politicians are exploiting health reform to enroll millions of the uninsured in the Democratic Party and fill the coffers of left-wing interest groups with taxpayer money. Here are the facts:

California lawmakers passed a law requiring that voter registration be part of the health-insurance exchange. Last month, Covered California announced $37 million in grants to 48 organizations to build public awareness about the opening of the health exchange. Of the 48 groups that got grants, only a handful are health-care-related.

The California NAACP got $600,000 to do door-to-door canvassing and presentations at community organizations. Service Employees International Union, which says its mission is “economic justice,”received two grants totaling $2 million to make phone calls, robo-calls and go door-to-door.

The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO got $1 million for door-to-door, one-on-one education and social networking. It describes its role as “engaging in both organizing and political campaigns, electing pro-union and pro-worker candidates.”

Community Health Councils, a California organization with a long history of political activism against fracking, for-profit hospitals, state budget cuts and oil exploration, got $1 million to conduct presentations at community and neighborhood meetings and one-to-one sessions.

These groups, closely allied with Democrats, are being funded by your tax dollars to conduct “outreach” — the kind of phone-banking and door-to-door canvassing that activists do to turn out the vote. They will turn out the uninsured to enroll in the exchanges and in the Democratic Party.

California’s actual enrollment process is also outsourced to community groups, unions and health clinics. An additional $49 million is budgeted to pay them the first year, but in future years, these assisters will be paid out of the premiums collected by the exchange. The template is repeated in every state. ObamaCare creates a permanent, nationwide stream of funding for unions and community activists.

Assisters will also guide the uninsured to sign up for whatever non-health social services they may be eligible for — including welfare, food stamps and housing assistance, according to the manual prepared for California’s implementation.

Anyone who remembers the days of James Curley, Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall should get the picture. If you were poor or a newcomer, you went to the local ward boss and got whatever you needed, in exchange for your vote. The difference is that back then, politics was local. Now the Obama health law is institutionalizing this corrupt style of politics across the country to create a permanent, Democratic voting majority.