Governor Markell as Scrooge: millions for Bloom Energy, nothing for "Charity Care"

If you think it a coincidence that this announcement by DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf was timed for a week after the elections, you need to think again.

Delaware is cutting the $478,000 program that provides charity health care services for the "near poor"--people who don't quite qualify for Medicaid and undocumented workers:

Delawareans pinching pennies near the federal poverty level – making from $16,100 for an individual to a maximum of $47,700 for a family of four – will lose health coverage through the state's Community Healthcare Access Program (CHAP) starting Feb. 1, state officials said late Monday afternoon. 

CHAP is a state-run program that offers discounted medical services for those not eligible for Delaware's Medicaid program. The state earmarked $478,000 in tobacco settlement funds for the program this fiscal year. 

CHAP recipients are ineligible for Medicaid either because they are undocumented immigrants or make more than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, Delaware's cutoff for Medicaid assistance. The federal poverty level is $11,670 a year for an individual.

It's really worth listening to the rationale for this decision:

"This is charity care and charity care more or less will be going away based on the mandate that everyone must have health insurance," said Rita Langraf, secretary of Delaware's Department of Health and Social Services, referencing the 2010 Affordable Care Act's requirement that everyone should have health insurance. 

Now let's consider this decision from three perspectives:

1.  It was made without reference to any feedback from the medical community of Delaware--even the Medical Society of Delaware (a DHSS lapdog if there ever was one) was neither consulted nor informed in advance.

2.  It was framed in such a fashion as to build support by denying benefits to illegal immigrants undocumented workers--6,000 of the 7,060 people who were receiving this charity care fall into that category.  Notably, one wonders (from a public health perspective, primarily), exactly how somebody without legal residence would sign up in the health insurance exchange and receive a Federal subsidy,  since undocumented individuals are specifically denied those subsidies under the ACA. So Secretary Landgraf's assertion that these folks can get subsidized coverage under the ACA is nothing less than a bald-face lie.

3.  The cost of providing this charity care is ludicrously low:  for 7,060 people at $478,000 this actually works out (stop, I'll wait while you do the math) to $67.70 per person per year.  Yep, that's right:  $67.70 per person per year.

Recently I noted that Bloom Energy has received over $80 million in taxpayer-subsidized corporate welfare only to fall $3.45 MILLION short of its employment targets.  Delaware Economic Director Al (not so HappyHarry any more) Levine made it explicitly clear that the faux "clean energy" company will not be penalized for this shortfall:

“While I’m disappointed they didn’t hit their number, I am not discouraged because I see them making steady progress,” Levin said.

Now compare this to Rita Landgraf's statement about the people who are profligately consuming $67.70 each of the state's resources each year:

"We've been informing [them] of this transition for probably a year. Now we are actually giving them a hard stop," Landgraf said. 

This is government accountability in the Delaware Way:  holding the "near poor" accountable for pennies while the corporate heads continue to receive millions even though they don't live up to their agreements.

Please, PLEASE don't become distracted by the immigration status of the people receiving this charity care.  That's a distraction that is consciously intended to divert you from realizing that what the government of the State of Delaware is about is NOT taking care of the poor but subsidizing the rich.

And make no mistake about it:  Secretary Landgraf is only carrying out the orders that have come from Governor Jack Markell.