Vital Signs: ABC for Health files legal claim against Walker officials for terminating contract

[iwishiwas]

Source: The Cap Times




Vital Signs: ABC for Health files legal claim against Walker officials for terminating contract

SHAWN DOHERTY | The Capital Times | [e-mail] madison.com Friday, March 25, 2011 9:00 am

ABC for Health filed a notice of claim with the state attorney general's office Thursday against top Walker administration officials, the first step in a potential lawsuit over the administration's decision to terminate a contract that would have given the public interest law firm $238,000 to help consumers navigate health care reform.

The money was part of a $637,114 grant issued to Wisconsin through the national health reform law. Insurance Commissioner Ted Nickel returned the grant to the feds in February, calling it "largely duplicative and unnecessary" and "a waste of taxpayer's money." The Walker administration has joined a multi-state lawsuit seeking to declare the federal law unconstitutional.

ABC's notice claims Insurance Commissioner Ted Nickel, his deputy Dan Schwartzer, Health Secretary Dennis Smith, his deputy Kitty Rhoades, and Gov. Walker's deputy chief of Staff Eric Schutt "wrongfully terminated" the firm's November 27 contract with OCI. The firm will seek damages equal to the $238,000 grant, a quarter of its estimated budget this year.

ABC's executive director Bobby Peterson claims the administration's decision to revoke the grant is an effort to "drive the stake through federal health care reform" and to weaken the ability of consumers to have a voice in how the federal reforms are implemented in Wisconsin. He also says administration officials, several of whom were health insurance executives before joining the Walker team, view advocacy organizations like his as pesky threats.....

Read more: http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/health_med_fit/vital_signs/article_0f76fee0-56e4-11e0-b396-001cc4c002e0.html

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Bobby Peterson has been a long time advocate for health care.

Walker hired a Heritage person-Dennis Smith to be Wisconsin's Health Secretary. We are doomed.

[glinda]

1. Love how all these Repub Governors join the Lawsuit when their States don't agree with them.

[RedCloud]

2. Just take Walker to Gitmo. He's a terrorist.