ObamaCare grants in Illinois
According to a recent Gallup survey, Illinois residents have the least trust in their own state government compared to every other state in the nation. That is why Illinois lawmakers should make stewardship of taxpayer dollars a top priority. When revelations of wasteful spending or outright fraud come to light, they only serve ti further...
According to a recent Gallup survey, Illinois residents have the least trust in their own state government compared to every other state in the nation. That is why Illinois lawmakers should make stewardship of taxpayer dollars a top priority.
When revelations of wasteful spending or outright fraud come to light, they only serve ti further undermine public trust in government. A recent investigative television report in St. Louis revealed that a government contractor that received a $1 billion contract to process ObamaCare applications was paying employees to do, essentially, nothing. It is this kind of scandal that only serves to confirm taxpayers’ worst suspicions.
That is what makes state Rep. Darlene Senger’s House Resolution 807, which calls for auditing the ObamaCare navigator program, is an important first step to ensuring government accountability to taxpayers. According to federal records, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, awarded the state of Illinois $155 million in grants to implement and market the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare, in Illinois. Given the substantial resources directed toward this effort, it is important to understand what these funds accomplished and, if they fell short, why – and whether the state has been a good steward of these federal taxpayer funds.
Of the four grants issued, two of them were to be used, in part, to support navigator outreach and assistance activities. The grants, totaling $149 million, were made in the amounts of $33 million and $116 million and are being administered by the state Department of Insurance.
While this money was spent in a number of areas, this total is the equivalent of almost $700 per person who selected a health insurance plan (but didn’t necessarily purchase one).
The Illinois Department of Insurance should undertake a full accounting of how, where and by whom these funds were spent. Given that President Barack Obama is requesting an even larger budget for these activities in his recent budget request, don’t taxpayers deserve to know if the state bureaucrats are spending these scarce resources wisely?
