Obamacare: Multi-Million Dollar Corruption Central

In a frightening glimpse of the potential for corruption in Obamacare, the government is giving dozens of leftist organizations $67 million to help people “navigate” health insurance exchanges that haven’t even been fully established.

The “navigators” receiving the taxpayer dollars will help people shop for and enroll in plans that will eventually be available on the new federal government market places. The so-called navigators will perform their duties in a “culturally competent manner,” according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency doling out the cash.

The money will be divided between 105 mostly leftist groups (surprise, surprise) that will help the uninsured sign up for coverage and understand their options. Here are a few examples of the community organizations receiving navigator grants from the government; an Arizona nonprofit called “Campesinos Sin Fronteras” that provides services to farm workers and low-income Hispanics; a south Florida legal group that will provide navigators in “racially, ethnically, linguistically, culturally and socioeconomically diverse” communities; three Planned Parenthood branches—in Iowa, Montana and New Hampshire—got a combined $655,000 to serve as navigators.

Here are a few other grant recipients worth mentioning; the Arab Community Center in Michigan is getting nearly $300,000 to reach out to and engage uninsured community members through “multicultural” media. A Black Chamber of Commerce in South Carolina is receiving north of $230,000 to “provide outreach around new coverage options” and a Hispanic aging group in Texas will receive over $646,000 help members that are “socially isolated due to cultural and linguistic differences.”

It’s tough not to see that there is a huge racial component in the administration’s efforts. The government is spending big bucks targeting minorities in a seemingly desperate effort to salvage the president’s hostile takeover of the nation’ healthcare system. There is another factor in all of this; for Obama’s healthcare law to succeed millions of people must purchase insurance through the government’s new markets and it doesn’t appear like that’s going to happen.  

That helps explain the frantic, multi-million-dollar outreach effort announced this month. HHS has already launched a 24-hour consumer call center in 150 languages. Additionally, the administration has recruited museums and libraries to help out with signing up people for healthcare and community health centers are sharing $150 million in federal grants to help enroll people. The $67 million navigator initiative is simply the latest investment.

“Navigators will be among the many resources available to help consumers understand their coverage options in the Marketplace,” says Obama HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “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.”

Also, this week HHS announced a contest that awards cash prizes—$30,000 in all—to those who create hip videos promoting Obamacare. The goal behind that brilliant idea is to inform young people about health insurance coverage under the new law. After all, Obamacare promises to make health care “more affordable and accessible for 19 million uninsured young adults across the country,” according to an HHS.

There seems to be no limit to the administration’s costly plan to make this disastrous healthcare law work. Just this week the president’s hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, blasted Obamacare in an editorial that referred to the measure as a “clumsy monstrosity.” The bottom line, according to the editorial: “Let’s delay and rewrite this ill-conceived law.”