The Walker Authority's Total Disregard for Life...

Gov. Scott Walker’s privatization plan is out of control. It's a cruel waste of taxpayer money, inhumane and just flat out deadly.

A deal to send taxpayer money to a private company, whether they perform their duties or not, has resulted in the possible early end of one man's life. And tragically, the last months of Jim Barry's life were needlessly stressful and cruel. This is life under the Walker ideology, and what Republicans promise nationally. The breathtaking horror of Jim's story is all here.  

Gitte Laasby-jsonline: The fight against cancer and kidney failure was more than enough of a burden for Jim Barry. But it was the lack of rides to treatment that ultimately did him in, family and friends say.

"I, in a way, hold them responsible because I feel if he had made all of these (appointments), maybe he would have only made it a month or two more, but he could have enjoyed his life to some degree anyway," Barry's ex-wife Donna Barry said. "The times he missed going to dialysis shortened his life that much more. Just watching him lying there and deteriorate is heartbreaking."

Was government assistance so bad that the following was unbearably excessive?

For years, Waupaca County had provided Barry's rides while cancer and other illnesses took a toll on his lungs, back, liver and kidneys. By the time LogistiCare took over the dispatching of his rides under a new state contract in July 2011, Barry's life depended on the dialysis treatments. LogistiCare was his only option. But the first of his scheduled rides that July never showed up. The next rides didn't show either. When Barry called to complain, he was on hold for more than 45 minutes, Donna Barry and a Waupaca County official said.

"I feel like they're trying to kill me," Barry told Waupaca Now in an interview in August 2011. "Yesterday, I made my funeral arrangements."

This is what essential life sustaining services look like under private, for profit care. LogisticCare today is alive and well as a company.

While constituents can call their elected politicians, private companies are not accessible. They've even devised ways to keep it that way. Which in this case, proved deadly.

Barry, 67, became frustrated and called the county. At first, he was directed back to the company, but county officials soon decided they had to intervene and filed an elder-abuse complaint with the state. "We made a determination locally that this was elder abuse and if he needed a ride, that we would use elder abuse funds to get him if they missed him," said Patrick Enright, aging and disability resource manager for Waupaca County's Department of Health and Human Services.

Still, the stress of it all was enough to make Barry say, "I'm not going today. I feel too sick." "He just got so frustrated. He couldn't figure out, 'Why are they doing this to me?'" she said. "Jim just said, 'To hell with it. I'm tired of fighting and screaming about rides. I quit.' It didn't take him long after that. It was maybe a month, if that. I don't remember. It all of a sudden happened so fast." Jim Barry died Sept. 14, 2011. By then, he had missed at least seven rides.

Albert Cortina, chief financial officer of LogistiCare, said he couldn't comment on Barry's case because of privacy laws.

Walker approved the contract with LogistiCare that allowed them to get paid no matter what happens. In fact, there's an incentive to NOT provide service, which allows them to pocket higher profits while not incurring any expenses. That's conservative accountability:

Under the three-year contract with the state, LogistiCare receives its own complaints. If people aren't happy with the way their complaint is handled, they can complain to an ombudsman, who is also on the LogistiCare payroll. The state only accepts transportation complaints if people are outright denied services. That setup comes back to bite Wisconsin taxpayers ... because they ultimately pay a larger cost if people don't make it to their appointments and have to be hospitalized later.

Witnessing Barry's experience made Enright question whether LogistiCare is purposely making it difficult for people to schedule rides so that they seek other transportation options. As the Journal Sentinel reported Oct. 1, LogistiCare is paid per member, not how many rides it provides. Because LogistiCare has to pay a transportation provider to take a ride, the company earns more money if it provides fewer rides. "The fact that this is a for-profit business and they get paid whether they provide the rides or not, it stinks," Enright said.

Donna Barry said she hopes the state will go back to the old system, under which the county dispatched the rides rather than LogistiCare. "It's our loved ones and we care how they're taken care of," she said. "Do you really want these people to have your life in their hands when they're so unreliable?"