THE MOLE IN THE CHARLIE BAKER CAMPAIGN – HARVARD PILGRIM HEALTH CARE

According to an article in today’s Boston Globe written by Kay Lazar of the Globe Staff, when Charlie Baker was the $1.7 million chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim he pulled the company out of Rhode Island  in 1999 with two months notice leaving both physicians and patients in the lurch and many critical care  and chronic health needs slipped through the cracks. Charlie Baker’s precipitous move resulted in “…shuttering the company’s three health centers there and forcing 1,200 physicians and others to search for new jobs”.

A Rhode Island pediatrician, Fortunato Procopio  said Baker’s action was “calamitous”.  In effect, Charlie Baker now Republican candidate for Governor of Massachusetts abandoned the state of Rhode Island and Baker had no plan as to how he would pay Harvard Pilgrim’s outstanding debts in that state. Dr. Procopio is quoted in the Globe article that”  We took out loans to pay our staff ….we had to take Harvard Pilgrim to court in order to get compensation back and that took a couple of years”. Apparently, it is an indication of this bean counter’s mentality where he cared not a whiff about the medical conditions of the Harvard Pilgrim subscribers and the doctors who provided medical care to them. It was all bottom line and the human element was no where to be found in Charlie Baker’s action.

In addition, as reported in Kay Lazar’s Globe article, under Charlie Baker’s reign Harvard Pilgrim has an “unremarkable track record for maintaining its administrative costs.” It administrative costs for the period 199 through 2008 were higher than the standard 10.4 cents average of other Massachusetts health insurers.

Of greater interest to voters in the upcoming election is the fact that from 2003 to today Harvard Pilgrim raised its premiums 70 percent in comparison to Blue Cross Blue Shield which only raised its premiums for the same period 33 percent. Tufts Health Plan rates only climbed 36 percent and as you know Tufts Health Plan is run by the former head of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, James Roosevelt, grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt  So much for Charlie Baker being the cost cutting Republican who rides in on his thoroughbred  white stallion and saves the day. Looks like the guy on the white horse with the white hat was a Roosevelt and not a Baker.

Finally, the truth about Charlie Baker’s smoke and mirrors time at Harvard Pilgrim is coming out and we discover that it only cost Harvard Pilgrim $1. 7 million dollars a year of its subscribers money to pay Charlie Baker to leave hundreds of physicians and patients in a worse health care state than they were before he rode into town.

We now know the mole in the Charlie Baker campaign is Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.  

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