Montgomery County GOP

O'Malley Drops the Ball on Maryland Social Services

Because Congressional Democrats are considering dramatically expanding Medicaid, the public health care program for the poor, it is worth looking at how the program is doing in Maryland.  Before expecting the government to take on more tasks, we should see how it is doing with its current responsibilities.   

Opponents of Obama Care often use examples of health care breakdowns in Canada and Britain to attack the proposals.  Unfortunately they need look no farther than Maryland to see an example of a badly administered government health and social service program.  

Earlier this week in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) cited the Maryland's Medicaid program failures as a reason to fear a national program expansion.  "In Maryland, 17,000 Medicaid patients are currently on a waiting list for medical services, and as many as 250 may have died while awaiting care, according to state auditors."[1]

The Baltimore Sun has covered the growing backlog of state medical assistance requests under Medicaid.  Maryland's nursing homes are being forced to pick up the tab for millions of dollars and patients are facing months of uncertainty over the status of their claims because of delays.  The paper quotes Danna Kauffman, a senior vice president for Life Span Network, a trade group that represents 100 mostly nonprofit nursing homes as saying that Maryland often takes six to nine months to approve payments, and things are becoming worse. "If something doesn't let up, we're going to see places going out of business." [2]

The state's social services system breakdown is not just limited to Medicaid.  Just last week a judge ruled that the State of Maryland is failing to provide food stamps and other public benefits as promptly as federal and state law requires. Generally, people who qualify for these benefits must begin receiving them within 30 days.  Yet thousands of needy Maryland families have waited weeks longer for assistance.[3]   The court found that more than 7,100 individuals and families were overdue medical assistance and more than 4,100 food stamp requests were delayed past the 30 day deadline.

Circuit Judge Barry Williams ordered the Department of Human Resources to fully comply with the deadline by the end of next year.  If the state fails to improve its performance it could be held in contempt of court or ordered to submit to additional remedies. 

The state's bureaucrats responded that it is impossible for them to come into full compliance in 12 months.  They rather lamely claim that Maryland needs another 18 months because of a needed upgrade in the department's computer system to make processing applications easier.

So where is Governor O'Malley in all this? The very next day after the state was slammed for its food stamps applications failures, Governor O'Malley released a press release touting his "Partnership to End Childhood Hunger" with which he intends to make Maryland the first state in the nation to "end childhood hunger within its borders."[4]   The Governor wants increase participation in federal food and nutrition programs like the Food Stamps, the Summer Food Service Program, School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

However he had nothing to say about the court case or his administration's management failures to process current food stamp applications in a timely manner.  A more engaged Governor would certainly have asked some pointed questions of his Secretary of the Department of Human Resources Department, Brenda Donald.

This is a moment that nicely captures the Governor's essence as a public official.  He is long on rhetoric and grand promises, but very weak on actual performance. He remains silent about the state's - his - current failures, but he is ready to promise to do more than anyone else - just at some time in the future.

Now fast forward a few years.  Assume the unfortunate and the Democrats get their way on health care.  Will these very same state bureaucrats now administering the Medicaid program tell a future court: "We would like to get people the health care coverage we promised them, but we need another 18 months to get our computers working right."   

It is a very chilling prospect.

Mark Uncapher