For release: 4.01.14
Contact: Jim Pettit
@jamesmpettit
As the oversight board charged with
implementing Obamacare is expected to formally announce ditching the
existing website today, Harford County Executive and Maryland candidate
for Governor David Craig said much-needed reforms are still missing.
Craig called on the Governor to appoint a new chair of the Board and
replace others with individuals who have IT, healthcare and
insurance-industry experience.
"For starters, the state health secretary
needs to be replaced as Chair of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange
Board," said Craig, referring to Joshua Sharfstein. "His responses to
the botched roll out of Maryland's exchange have been feeble and his
leadership weak, and the Governor needs to take action that acknowledges
this serious shortcoming."
The nine-member Exchange Board, which administers
the Maryland Health Connection website, is weighted heavily towards
government officials and university professors.
"When an
organization is failing, leadership is replaced," said Craig. "I am
deeply troubled that O'Malley believes people aren't the problem here -
of course they are. The health secretary admits he couldn't control the
contractors, so how is he going to control the new ones? The Governor
would be doing everyone a favor by appointing an individual with
experience in taking over troubled ventures.”
The state's top elected officials have been dropping
hints for nearly a month that Maryland's exchange will switch to
Deloitte Consulting in an attempt to replicate the success that Kentucky
and Connecticut have had in utilizing a firm that has developed a
functioning website.
"I am concerned that this new firm is in the
driver's seat because they have a desperate and dysfunctional client,"
said Craig. "With taxpayers having spent a quarter of a billion dollars
already, the state needs a board that has the experience for this
complicated undertaking."
Craig also said Administration health care point man and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown needs to define his role.
“The
Governor recently said that fixing the Maryland exchange is similar to
changing a flat tire in addition to other poor analogies that attempt to
dumb-down the serious problem of people being denied health care. If
that’s how the Governor feels, then he should boot out the Lt. Governor
from the backseat and make him assist those changing the tires.”
Craig released a plan at the beginning of this year
to avoid the under-performing state health exchange and enable consumers
to obtain health insurance through other means. The plan consists of
ending the current emphasis on Maryland Health Connection and instead
diverts marketing and outreach resources to promoting direct enrollment
options through insurance carriers or utilizing the assistance of
Maryland-based insurance brokers.
