From the office of Congressman Andy Harris:
Statement from Rep. Harris on MD Health Exchange
“Tomorrow, the board of the Maryland Health Exchange will vote on whether to replace the state’s failed exchange with the technology from Connecticut’s exchange and hire Deloitte, the contractor that built the Connecticut system. Connecticut has had one of the most successful exchanges in the country, while Maryland has had one of the worst. Two years and $200 million later, Maryland is back to square one—and will now have to spend tens of millions more to implement Connecticut’s exchange. The board has no choice but to vote yes, however, before even more taxpayer dollars are wasted on the dysfunctional exchange.”
Andy thanks for letting us know you are part of the problem.
How is Harris part of the problem? He has voted against Obamacare. He has taken the responsible stance against this stupid law that will only cost everyone more money. I’m not a real Harris fan either, but get your facts straight before making an unfounded comment like that.
What I find lacking in Harris’ press release is a recommendation of some sort. It appears that he is just complaining, rather than seeking a solution to the current conundrum. While expected behavior on his part, it is still unhelpful.
I’ve made 2 phone calls in an attempt to find out who will be accountable for the shameful waste of taxpayer dollars from the obviously incompetent IT project planning and development on the MD Health Exchange. Here is how the calls went: First, after hearing Elijah Cummings on TV make a statement that ‘since the Connecticut system is working well, we may as well go with that now; after all, there’s no pride of authorship’. Since I was appalled that he said NOTHING in regard to the waste of taxpayer dollars, I called his office. His staffer answered the phone only with ‘hello’, forcing me to ask if it was Cummings office. He said yes. I then reiterated what I heard Cummings say, and I added that I wanted to know who would be accountable for the $125 million of tax dollars lost. He said he would relay the message. I asked if he would read it back to me, to assure the message gets forwarded accurately. Here is all he said: ‘well, you are concerned about the $125 thousand….. ‘. I said ‘wait a minute’. It was NOT $125 thousand – it was $125 M I L L I O N. Do you know how to write that down – do I need to spell it for you? “. I made a couple more attempts, but it was clear this staffer’s skill set was very low, so it was really a waste of time. On top of the loss of taxpayer dollars for the subject at hand – how disgusting it is that WE all pay the salaries of intelligence-challenged staffers for our legislators.
Now for the second call: I called Governor O’Malley’s office at 410-974-3901 and got his staffer. I said that as a taxpayer I am outraged at the news regarding the MD Health Exchange. There was silence on the other end. The staffer then said ‘I am not sure what you mean’. I then said ‘you’re kidding me – you’re telling me you don’t know?’. He asked me to be more specific! I then took the time to educate him. (wonder what HIS salary costs us taxpayers). When I said I would like to know what will be done about the loss of taxpayer dollars, he said ‘anything to do with the budget would be addressed by the Governor’s budget secretary’. I asked for a name and number. He said to call Eloise Foster at 410-260-7041. I call that number and described my concern. Again, I got no response indicating any semblance of understanding or recognition of the current state of the MD Health Exchange. I asked if she had heard anything regarding Elijah Cummings’ statement. She said ‘oh yeah I did hear something’. I said well it’s like this: ‘If you owned a business and your employee implemented a project and then came to you and said it wasn’t working and it cost $125 million but that’s not really any big deal – wouldn’t YOU be a little concerned?’. She then said ‘oh yeah I see what you mean….well, the budget secretary isn’t in the office right now – so I will have her call you back’.
I can’t believe every Maryland citizen isn’t outraged and calling O’Malley’s office and demanding to know what went wrong and who is responsible. Somewhere I recall that Anthony Brown had headed up the effort to development the MD Health Exchange. Oh THAT’s right – he is now busy running for Governor. God help us. The new bumper sticker should read: WELCOME TO MARYLAND – EMPTY YOUR WALLET AND DON’T ASK QUESTIONS.
I tried calling Andy’s office for help in understanding and signing up for health coverage. His office staff did nothing to help other then give me a number for Maryland healthcare which is worthless. My question is why didn’t Maryland just sell the coverage through the federal exchange? Needless to say Obamacare is nothing but a political bust. It’s just a way to give a subsidy to the people that are freeloaders of the federal government.
The single most responsible person for the Maryland attempt at “Affordable Health Care” is Anthony Brown. He was also the chair of the group to get the biggest bang out of the BRAC buck. Unfortunately he faied miserably at both. This man is an absolute dolt who is so incompetent that he let us get stuck for the $125 “glitch.” As an aside, it is being proven slowly, that the Affordable Health Care Act is not affordable, and has nothing to do with health care.
Another pointless PR scrap of toilet paper from the Harris office. It’s like the intern monkey forgot to hit save after they typed 3 more paragraphs and then they decided to send out the release unfinished because they didn’t feel like typing the rest over again. I seriously wonder about who is in charge of Mr. Harris’ PR, because it is so mindless and idiotic. If he wasn’t coddled into a Republican vein of the State he’d be run out of town. It’s really sad that the MD Republican party supports this buffoon.
That said, my hope is that the people of MD are smart enough to hold Anthony Brown responsible for that catastrophe.
Though I’m sure they won’t.
The State of Maryland, no wait Joshua M. Sharfstein, Health Secretary will negotiate an “emergency” $40 million to $50 million contract with the software company who developed the Healthcare Website for the State of Connecticut since the Maryland’s previous Healthcare Website according to Gov Martin O’Malley, “..did not go as we had planned, our launch failed.” Now, Isabel Fitzgerald, Maryland’s Secretary for the Department of Information Technology who stepped in to help fix the previous health care exchange will oversee the program. The State of Maryland is holding IBM responsible for this failure. IBM’s stand is that they met or exceeded their contractural obligations in this matter and it was the State of Maryland officials who mismanaged it. The State of Maryland has spent tens of millions of dollars on this website already. They need a quick $3 million to set up a new website but THE PROGRAM SOFTWARE IS AVAILABLE FOR MARYLAND TO USE FREE.
This smacks of FRAUD, WASTE AND ABUSE.
Man, That’s Just Wrong. )