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45 search results for: unified health infrastructure project

31

Coming up in Committee: Twenty-Six Sets of Bills Being Heard by the RI General Assembly, March 10 – March 12

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1A. H5343: Sensible fiscal rules for fire-districts, including a 4% annual cap on tax-increases, limitation of debt to 5% of annual operating budgets, a ban on tax-classification plans, and a ban on assessing supplemental taxes “without conducting a properly advertised special meeting which satisfies the annual budget meetings notice and attendance provisions”. (H Finance; Wed, Mar 11)

1B. H5344: Requires “2% of of the total registered and qualified voting members of the fire district” to be present at a fire-district financial meeting to establish a quorum. Also, H5345 establishes new notice requirements for fire-district meetings, including a minimum 60-day notice period for the annual budget meeting (H Finance; Wed, Mar 11)

2. H5519: Constitutional amendment (to be ratified by the voters) giving the Governor a line-item veto power over appropriations. (H Finance; Wed, Mar 11) I understand the desire to express this as a short amendment, but given the way the RI budget process works, given the currently proposed form, what’s to stop the GA from conducting a single en masse override of everything that was vetoed?

3. H5329: Terminates the “the Rhode Island health benefits exchange, known under the name ‘HealthSourceRI’, and the unified health infrastructure project” and transfers “all management and operation of the Rhode Island health benefits exchange to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U. S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services”. (H Finance; Tue, Mar 10)

4. H5329: Exempts “Coventry, East Greenwich and West Greenwich from all the terms and provisions” of the “written long-term economic development vision and policy for the state of Rhode Island” and the “strategic plan for implementing this policy”. (S Finance; Tue, Mar 10)

5. H5651: Imposes an additional $46 fee for a marriage license, $44 of which is to be administrated by the Rhode Island Coalition against Domestic Violence to fund domestic violence prevention programs. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 11) I’ll repeat what I said about a similar bill from last year: The Department of Justice reports that “intimate partner violence” rates for married women are significantly lower than are the rates for never married or divorced/widowed women, yet a group of RI legislators think it’s a good idea to make couples who are taking basic steps towards responsible commitment pay for the bad acts of everyone. This bill creates the impression that Rhode Island’s dour progressives really don’t like marriage very much.

32

Sudden Deficits and a Need for Better Decision Making

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The surplus with which the Rhode Island government ended last fiscal year has turned into a deficit, this year, according to a story by Randal Edgar in yesterday’s Providence Journal.  Why?  Well, here’s a big reason:

The rising Medicaid costs are the result of increased enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, as well as a smaller-than-expected savings in Rite Care, the state’s health program for poor families, after the state reduced the income eligibility threshold from 175 percent of the federal poverty level to 133 percent.

Also contributing are delayed eligibility reviews for Medicaid enrollees. State officials say the federal government encouraged the delay with the advent of the Affordable Care Act, thinking states were already busy with the Obamacare rollout. The reviews typically identify cases in which recipients are no longer eligible, for reasons ranging from a rise in income to death, so the delay is adding to the state’s costs.

This is really no surprise.  The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity pointed out the costs of the ACA back when Rhode Island could have avoided them.  There is surprisingly little interest in debating decisions (like the expansion of Medicaid) as they’re made, which is indicative of the degree to which Rhode Island government suffers from a short-term-thinking approach.

An unsigned editorial calling for Rhode Island’s health benefits exchange to be transferred to the federal government points to another one:

As a further benefit to taxpayers, the federal website appears to be much more efficient than the Rhode Island one, covering people for a much lower cost per applicant. And there are other costs associated with the state program. According to Mr. Alexander, a related initiative, the Unified Health Infrastructure Project, is projected to cost state taxpayers more than $51.3 million between now and 2020.

The cost of implementing UHIP is only the beginning.  The project is designed to link social-service programs together, increasing bureaucrats’ ability to find non-paying customers.  Don’t be surprised when the state government finds we suddenly have new deficits and less money to spend on things that government really ought to be doing, like maintaining infrastructure.

40

UHIP and a Picture of Rhode Island’s Feudalism

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UHIP waiting lines illustrate state government’s harvesting of human beings and prove how low the minimum wage really is in a system of government dependency (even as elites throw awards at an unpopular governor).

42

A Lesson for the Fed’s Intended Involvement in Rhode Island

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The Boston Fed cites Lawrence, MA, as an example of success for the program that it would like to bring to Rhode Island. That struggling city is actually a great case study in why Rhode Islanders should resist the Fed and any other top-down program to save the state.

43

Coming up in Committee: Bill Sets 4 thru 35 to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, March 31 – April 2

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4. H5631: Allows individuals who have property confiscated as part of a civil forfeiture proceeding to “seek a court determination as to whether the forfeiture is disproportionately excessive to the gravity of the offense giving rise to the forfeiture”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 31)

5A. H5610: Mandates that the Department of Public Safety begin “to implement an electronic automobile and commercial vehicle liability insurance confirmation and compliance system” that includes “an automatic license plate recognition system to electronically capture license plate images in two seconds or less and noninvasively attempt verification of the insurance and when possible, the registration status of the vehicle”. (H Finance; Wed, Apr 1)

5B. H5606: Requires that applicants for operators and chauffeur licenses have a valid social security number. (H Finance; Wed, Apr 1) It will be interesting to see how many legislators end up taking the position that requiring social security numbers for operators and chauffeur’s licenses is unreasonable, while supporting an electronic system that is supposed to watch every automobile in the state.

6. H5495: Minimum-manning for social workers at public schools, one per 400 students. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Apr 1)

7. H5961: Unambiguously establishes that holding a seat on the Cumberland Fire District board is holding public office — and that “members shall hold no other public office”. (H Judiciary; Wed, Apr 1) I understand and agree with the spirit of this bill: it’s crazy that here in Rhode Island, we pretend that there’s ambiguity about whether Fire Districts are part of the government or not. However, 1) a bill like this shouldn’t be confined to one community and 2) the authors of the bill need to carefully review the law in this area, to make sure there aren’t potential problems (legal and ethical) with burdening Cumberland Fire District Board members more than other local officials.

44

Compassion of the Progressive State

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Here’s one of those stories that might just provide what we writer types call “foreshadowing”:

A mother who pleaded guilty to fraudulently enrolling her six-year-old son in the wrong school district has been sentenced to five years in prison….

McDowell told police she was living in a van and occasionally slept at a Norwalk shelter or a friend’s Bridgeport apartment when she enrolled her son Norwalk’s Brookside Elementary School.

Police said McDowell stole $15,686 worth of ‘free’ educational services from Norwalk.

Of course, this story may not include the sorts of details that lead conservatives to suggest that laws and judgments ought to be made and enforced at the most local level possible.  Although McDowell’s drug prosecution appears to have produced an entirely separate sentence, prosecutors, juries, and judges rightly take the individual into consideration when assessing penalties.  Racial tensions during the Obama Era provide ample evidence of the danger inherent in elevating local stories to the national level in the service of a narrative.

Still, with all of the lip service New England progressives give to helping the disadvantaged and all of the millions of dollars they spend developing ways to ensure an easy on ramp to the easy street of government dependency, we’re in need of reminders that the mission is all about control, not charity.  We can be sure that the government of Connecticut is happy to give McDowell much more than $16,000 in taxpayer-funded benefits and free services, provided she doesn’t try to exercise the parental prerogative of school choice.

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