The Wisconsin State Journal reported the story, but missed the point. This ploy is a familiar one. For example: The Bush administration told the Veterans Administration to NOT promote the benefits available to current and former servicemen, as a way to save money. What they didn’t know could hurt them, but it saved taxpayer dollars.
The state has just put in place a similar plan; if people didn’t know how to sign up for the new health care system or report non-compliance by providers, people might suffer and die, but it won’t cost taxpayers a dime.
WSJ: Wisconsin's insurance commissioner has terminated a $637,114 grant issued through the federal health reform law, part of $86 million awarded to the state, some of which also could be in question.
Ted Nickel, the Commissioner of Insurance, has ended a Consumer Assistance Grant announced in October to help people enroll in health coverage and file complaints under the new law … Nickel said the program is "largely duplicative and unnecessary ... We believe that saving taxpayers, whether they are federal or state taxpayers, from unnecessary spending is in everyone's best interest."
What people in Wisconsin don’t know may harm or kill them, but thankfully, will save “federal or state taxpayers, from unnecessary spending…”
Bobby Peterson, executive director of ABC for Health, a non-profit law firm in Madison, had a contract to receive $238,000 of the grant to help people choose among public and private insurance options and appeal denials of care.
Now fewer people will know how to find the best coverage, Peterson said, especially when insurance marketplaces known as exchanges are formed by 2014. "It's another one of the stakes that are being driven into health care reform in Wisconsin," he said.
It’s a brutal but conservative view, that political battles may be littered with the bodies of innocent medically needy Americans, but in the end they will win the ideological fight and keep more of their money.
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