BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN – HONOLULU — The Hawaii Republican Party has turned down a plea from the Hawaii Health Connector to use party leadership and legislators to recruit for the exchange.
In a Dec. 27 email to Kayla Berube, executive director of the Hawaii Republican Party, Ria Baldevia of the health connector asked whether GOP leadership and lawmakers could help uninsured Hawaii residents secure coverage.
But in a scathing response, Berube said the Hawaii Republican Party is willing to promote policies that ensure people have better access to care and allows them to keep their plans and doctors, but the Affordable Care Act fails to do that.
Berube also noted a number of concerns about the connector’s performance.
The federal government allocated $204 million for the Hawaii exchange, including $53 million for its website, but the site has had a number of technical issues that have prevented people from getting insurance.
“The Hawaii Health Connector has received over $200 million in federal funding, which would seem like plenty of money to avoid the failures we have witnessed in the first three months. Where did that money go?” Berube asked.
The technical glitches were no surprise, Berube said, since the Hawaii Health Connector hired CGI Group over the objection of Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, who warned the connector that CGI botched upgrade of the Hawaii tax-collection system.
“We believe Hawaii residents should be able to securely sign up through your website, but the National Review reported it is one of many state-run exchanges vulnerable to wi-fi attacks, allowing hackers to intercept personal information of those trying to obtain health insurance,” Berube said.
The news organization deemed Hawaii’s exchange the “nation’s worst.”
“It is quite embarrassing for Hawaii, a state which embraced the Affordable Care Act, to have ranked dead last in the nation in December as the worst state-based exchange,” Berube said.
Sanjeev Bhagowalia, the state’s IT director, told state representatives at a Dec. 12 hearing the website still has a number of glitches, and he is worried it’s not secure enough to keep “very sophisticated foes” — hackers — from obtaining confidential information from the site.
“This is a very serious area and we are not prepared,” Bhagowalia said.
Low enrollment, the cost for each successful sign up and rising rates are issues, too.
Hawaii Health Connector Interim Director Tom Matsuda, who took over Dec. 9, said a total of 2,034 people who have enrolled in a health plan and 296 businesses have applied for a health plan through the Hawaii Health Connector as of Dec. 25.
But Berube said that still breaks down to about $100,000 spent per person and small business that successfully signed up.
The law’s mandates are already driving up premiums, Berube said, including premiums with Kaiser and HMSA, Hawaii’s two primary insurance providers, which will increase as much as 9.2 percent on thousands of individual and small businesses.
In addition, the Hawaii Health Connector still isn’t effectively connected to the state’s Medicaid system, which means low-income applicants are stuck in limbo, Berube said.
Meanwhile, Hawaii’s Democrat lawmakers are criticizing the exchange.
Rep. Justin Woodson, D-Maui, pressed state Insurance Commissioner Gordon Ito at the Dec. 12 hearing when he admitted the exchange would not lower health insurance rates in Hawaii. Ito told lawmakers the insurance plans obtained through the exchange would probably increase 8 percent to 10 percent per year, in part because of the fees assessed on insurance companies to fund the exchange.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie and the Hawaii Health Connector’s board and administration assumed at least 100,000 people — all of the state’s uninsured — would sign up for health insurance over the next two years. Initial financial plans for the connector were based on 300,000 people — or 24 percent of the state’s population — buying health insurance. But that prediction falls far short.
State officials told lawmakers the Hawaii Health Connector isn’t financially sustainable and, because of that, should be converted from an independent nonprofit to a state agency.
Pat McManahan, the state’s human services director, as well as representatives from Kaiser and HMSA health insurance, agreed.
Once the $204 million runs out the exchange will be expected to fund its $10 million to $14 million in annual operations through fees on local insurance companies. The fees, now at 2 percent, are generated through a percentage of sales made through the exchange.
Or just maybe the uninsured aren't signing up because then they would have to PAY for it when they could use that money on more urgent neccessities, like shelter and food.
The ACA is a disaster and needs to be repealed. It is poorly-crafted legislation, too over-loaded and too complicated to understand and to implement. Good legislation must be simple and straightforward, and void of contentious and litigious language and scope. Congress is not supposed to pass laws that create more litigation. New laws should curb litigation. This is a mess, and must be re-written entirely. Otherwise, we will wind up putting baling wire, scotch tape, and blow-out patches on this mess for generations, and it will simply keep getting worse. Repeal now, and start over. Good health care is essential to a strong country, but not the way this Act stands now. The failed website is a blessing in disguise, because it has revealed all of the inadequacies of the ACA that Nancy Pelosi did not understand when she said “Pass it now. We’ll figure out what it means later.” Congress has been asleep at the wheel, first, by allowing this legislative catastrophe to pass to begin with and believing Obama; second, for allowing the government shutdown; and finally, for allowing this to continue. REPEAL NOW!!!! And Obama should be ashamed of himself for not being straight with America. He avoided revealing the fine print just to get this Act passed, the height of hypocrisy. He must get someone else to speak for himself, because no one is going to believe him, ever again. We expect competence and honesty from our leaders; with Obama, we have neither.
You forgot to get the opinions of libertarian Cliff Slater and his obedient mentee!
Shouldn't health insurance sales people be licensed…
That "Thumbs Up" photo is of everyone in who actually signed up for the Exchange
Where's gov. Neil in the picture? He should be the first one to sign since; "President Obama backs Abercrombie for governor" More at; https://www.khon2.com/news/president-obama-backs-a…
His arm wasn't long enough to reach the bottom of the frame.
Alligator arms…I know people like that when it comes time to pay the check.
"The Hawaii Health Connector still isn’t effectively connected to the state’s Medicaid system, which means low-income applicants are stuck in limbo, Berube said."
It's not just the very low income stuck in limbo, its anyone who qualifies for subsidies, who are the ONLY people who MUST use the connector. Anyone qualifying for insurance with subsidies are being prevented from doing so by incompetent government who must verify that they don't qualify for medicaid FIRST, and that process takes MONTHS, because its being done by hand by state staff.
In other words, if someone wants to pay for insurance, but qualifies for financial help, the government is say no- we need to prove you can't get it for free first.
$53 million for a website??!! WTF???!!! That works out to $530 for each of the state's 100,000 uninsured. Could they not have just taken that $53 million and bought insurance for the uninsured? That would have been far better and chaper then continuing to fuel this Obamacare train wreck.
[…] Hawaii GOP refuses request to recruit for Obamacare exchange “We believe Hawaii residents should be able to securely sign up through your website, but the National Review reported it is one of many state-run exchanges vulnerable to wi-fi attacks, allowing hackers to intercept personal information of those trying … Read more on Hawaii Reporter […]
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