Lessons learned from Wellcare

To get an idea as to how aggressive Wellcare’s former executives were with their lobbying efforts, take a look at a recent post by Adam Smith of the St. Petersburg Times at The Buzz: Florida Politics,

We're not as cynical as some about big-time campaign donors and bundlers -- First Amendment and all -- but this week's WellCare news should remind us why we should be seriously wary of many of the major campaign bankrollers in Florida. WellCare and its subsidiaries pumped $2.4-million into the Florida political system in the '04 and '06 cycles, more than 90 percent of it to Republicans (top recipients were the RPOF, Ken Pruitt, Tom Lee and Frank Farkas, according to an AP analysis). A day after lawmakers convened to consider sweeping changes to Florida's Medicaid system, WellCare wrote a $100,000 check to the state GOP, which received $1.2 million from the company all told.

WellCare stopped making political donations after major problems and an investigation subsequently erupted, but thankfully the state GOP found other major donors to help pick up the slack. Like Jay Odom.

First amendment and all, a few things strike me as odd about Wellcare’s lobbying:

• First, Wellcare is capitalized through stock but its primary source of revenue is government programs. There is something especially “icky” about using funds dedicated for the care of vulnerable persons and using it for self-serving purposes.
• Second, Wellcare is essentially a state contractor. Again, one should get an “icky” feeling when a contractor of one branch of government uses money to lobby another branch of government.
• Finally, something in me says that these types of shenanigans are easier given the state’s term-limits but I leave that discussion for another day.

That said, Wellcare could justly say that they were only advocating on their and their shareholder’s behalf. But there is such a thing as growing too big and going too far and in that regard, many of the State’s leaders were either asleep at the wheel or were enablers because rather than reigning in an out-of-control Wellcare, they cashed the checks.

One only needs to look at Dante’s Inferno to the see that users, fraudsters, and betrayers of special relationships fill the lowest levels of Dante’s Hell. Yes, we say “hate the sin, not the sinner” and thus, it is our responsibility to change the culture such that service to taxpayers and beneficiaries are first and foremost in our leaders’ minds.

Call me naive but one can only hope. ~BAA