Comment: Fund-raising is a technique used by the Girl Scouts. If I donate, when will I get my cookies? On a more serious note, a House committee is investigating.
“HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is asking private industry executives to help fund Obamacare’s implementation.”
[…]
“Sebelius has, over the past three months, made multiple phone calls to health industry executives, community organizations and church groups and directly asked that they contribute to non-profits that are working to enroll uninsured Americans and increase awareness of the law…”
[…]
“The Affordable Care Act included $1 billion to be used in overall implementation of the law. Congressional Budget Office projections, however, estimated that federal agencies would need between $5 billion to $10 billion to get the law up and running over the next decade….”
“…Federal regulations do not allow department officials to fundraise in their professional capacity.”
‘…“It sounds like the people she’s going to are people that are being regulated by her agency, I think that is definitely problematic,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center….”
[...]
“In 2012, budget documents show that Health and Human Services pulled hundreds of millions of dollars from programs not specifically earmarked for the Affordable Care Act’s implementation.”
“On top of that, the agency announced Thursday that it would use $150 million in Affordable Care Act funds meant to build additional community health centers to train thousands of health care outreach workers at facilities that already exist.”
Budget request denied, Sebelius turns to health executives to finance Obamacare
By Sarah Kliff,
May 10, 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/10/budget-request-denied-sebelius-turns-to-health-executives-to-finance-obamacare/