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Cleveland
Plain Dealer
Probe
of health care grants embroils Ohio groups in Obamacare squabble
By
Sabrina Eaton
September
05, 2013
WASHINGTON,
D.C. -- Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee say
they were exercising legitimate oversight authority last week when
they sent letters to 51 civic groups to demand documentation of their
work to help uninsured Americans get coverage through exchanges
Obamacare will create.
But
Democrats on the committee say the voluminous document productions
their GOP counterparts want from federal Navigator grant recipients
in 11 states, including Ohio, amounts to harassment that's meant to
hinder the health care law's implementation.
"It
appears that these requests may have been sent solely to divert the
resources of small, local community groups, just as they are needed
to help with the new health care law," the committee's top
Democrat, Henry Waxman of California, wrote in an Aug. 30 letter to
its chairman, Fred Upton of Michigan. "Certainly, there is no
explanation of what legitimate purpose is served by the Committee
making such invasive requests of small, non-partisan, and community
based organizations."
Last
month, five Ohio organizations got grants totaling more than $3
million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to "serve
as an in-person resource for Americans who want additional assistance
in shopping for and enrolling in plans in the Health Insurance
Marketplace beginning this fall." Nationwide, the program
awarded $67 million to 105 groups.
“Navigators
will be among the many resources available to help consumers
understand their coverage options in the Marketplace,” said Health
and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in announcing the
grants. “A network of volunteers on the ground in every state –
health care providers, business leaders, faith leaders, community
groups, advocates, and local elected officials – can help spread
the word and encourage their neighbors to get enrolled.”
Two
weeks later, Upton and 14 other House Commerce Committee members,
including Marietta Republican Bill Johnson, sent a letter to all Ohio
grant recipients, as well as those in 10 other states, seeking
extensive documentation of their organization's use of the grant.
Ohio
groups that got the letter were the Clermont Recovery Center in
Batavia, which got a $44,938 federal grant, the Neighborhood Health
Association in northwest Ohio, which got $684,630, the Helping Hands
Community Outreach Center in Dayton, which got $230,920, Children's
Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, which got $124,419, and the
the Ohio Association of Foodbanks in Columbus, which got $1.9
million.
Ohio
Association of Foodbanks Executive Director Lisa Hamler-Fugitt said
her organization will provide the committee with the requested
information, although it will take "a lot of resources" to
produce so much material. She said she agreed with the critiques in
Waxman's letter...
Read
the rest of the article at The Cleveland Plain Dealer
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