‘ANOTHER’ BADLY BOTCHED OBAMACARE EXCHANGE…

MARTY O'MALLEY

Under normal circumstances I’d say that this probably wouldn’t be the best of news to be heard by a governor, especially one who fancies himself a potential 2016 candidate and presidential hopeful. And by normal circumstances what I mean is that the governor in question would happen to be a Republican. But not to worry, in this particular instance we’re taking about a Democrat, Marty O’Malley to be specific, and the state involved here is none other than the People’s Republic of Maryland. So in this case, it’s no big deal.

The situation to which I refer is one where we now have a Maryland Congressman who says that subpoenas are now being issued in a federal investigation into Maryland’s rather screwed up Obamacare exchange. He said that he believes there was fraud in the system that cost taxpayers millions but hasn’t worked right from the start. Now anyone who has been paying attention has, I’m sure, heard about what a nightmare this thing was from day one. It’s part of trend that we have seen in many of these state exchanges.

Congressman Andy Harris has said there appears to be evidence of fraud. Oddly enough he’s Maryland’s lone Republican in Congress and has continued to be a very vocal opponent of Obamacare. But this investigation, if it’s happening, is being conducted by what is supposed to be a non-political government agency. Maryland’s health exchange, the connection to Obamacare here, never has worked as easily as promised. Much like the exchanges in both Washington State and Oregon, it crashed and was filled with technical problems.

The exchange is now supposedly being revamped but Harris says there’s a growing federal investigation into the millions of taxpayer dollars that have already been wasted on the website. He says the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General is issuing subpoenas for fraud. He said, "There were invoices literally for hundreds of dollars an hour in charges with no reason for the invoices, no specific work done and these were approved by the executive director."

A representative of the Inspector’s Office supposedly said in a recent interview that he couldn’t confirm that any investigation was taking place. The office is non-political, independent, and looks into waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars. Some unnamed official also said, "Every year, we investigate, prosecute and conduct hundreds of companies who misuse our seal taxpayer dollars. As a result of our work, we recover billions." Well, I’m not sure how much of that I’m willing to buy, but it would be nice if it were true.

In published reports, a spokesman for the Maryland Health Exchange denied Harris’ claim that subpoenas had been issued. Earlier, the governor and lieutenant governor both welcomed an investigation. It’s unclear who is being targeted in any possible investigation, whether the subpoenas are for government workers or contractors. The health exchange and fixes to it are expected to cost taxpayers more than $260 million. When you add up all of the money that has been spent on these exchanges it absolutely mindboggling.

Mr. Harris said, "It’s in a new phase now, a phase which could ultimately result in criminal charges." Actually, it’s everyone who played a hand in the passing of this thing, from Barry on down, that should now be facing criminal charges of one form or another. They sought out to destroy the best health system in the world, and for what? So the government would then be able to dictate to all but the very rich, how it is that they would be able to seek out healthcare. Once again this was all about nothing more than control.