Posted on 07/05/2013 1:39:30 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
WASHINGTON — Racing to meet an October deadline, Obama administration officials said Thursday that they had awarded a contract worth as much as $1.2 billion to a British company to help them sift applications for health insurance and tax credits under the new health care law.
The company, Serco, has extensive experience as a government contractor with the Defense Department and intelligence agencies, and it also manages air traffic control towers in 11 states and reviews visa applications for the State Department. But it has little experience with the Department of Health and Human Services or the insurance marketplaces, known as exchanges, where individuals and small businesses are supposed to be able to shop for insurance.
Serco will help the Obama administration and states determine who is eligible for insurance subsidies, in the form of tax credits, and who might qualify for Medicaid. Tasks include “intake, routing, review and troubleshooting of applications,” according to the contract.
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Several insurance and health policy experts said they were surprised at the selection of Serco because it did not have experience with the exchanges. But that may have helped the company win the contract. In the last six months, federal health officials expressed concern that companies already working with exchanges could have an unfair competitive advantage because they had access to nonpublic information about how the government was setting up its eligibility and enrollment system.
Serco will also help the administration decide who is entitled to exemptions from the tax penalties that can be imposed on people who go without health insurance starting next year. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Serco has seen a large amount of criticism involving its private prisons and detention centres. In particular, the Union of Christmas Island Workers has said about the Christmas Island detention centre, which hosts many refugees as well as 1,000 children who have tried to immigrate into Australia, "Serco's failure to perform is huge."[64] Serco has been accused of beating prisoners, not adequately maintaining their physical and mental health, and allowing suicide and self-harm incidents to increase over time. Australian ombudsman Allan Asher said to the Australian radio show AM, "In the first week of June when I visited Christmas Island, more than 30 incidents of self harm by detainees held there were reported."[64] Serco, in a company memo leaked to The Australian, blamed the detainees for "creating a culture of self harm," and using it as a "bargaining tool."[64] Serco has been fined for breaches of contract every month it has managed detention centres in Australia, leading to a total of $4 million in fines in early 2011. Also, Serco's Christmas Island detention center was reported by its own former manager to be "typically 15 staff members short every day."[64]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serco_Group
Giving jobs to Brits that Americans won’t do?
Just when you think it’s safe to go to bed, there’s this kind of garbage.
Lemme see - high US unemployment, lotsa mid-level managers and office types who could use a job and probably have some relevant experience, and O gives the store away to a British firm with no experience in the field? Jebus H. Will we have to call London for customer service?
A billion bucks.
Aaaaahhh. Don’t sweat it. At $50,000 a year, that’s only 20,000 jobs for a year.
You beat me to it!
I thought either ACORN or the Musim Brotherhood would get the contract.
Now he can blame the Brits. It’s actually quite scary. A friend of mine in Europe has to have surgery and there’s such a long waiting list (since they closed tens of hospitals) she’s to travel a hundred miles to have it done earlier.
I couldn’t find their board members at the site thereagain I’m in a hurry...
http://www.seco.com/en/page/Company-Overview.html
Partnerships:
http://www.seco.com/en/page/Partners.html
They’ve even been merging our defense contracts to foreign countries. It’s Global Community Organizing - they’re merging us into the NWO whether we like it or not.
We are one world!
What a sneaky way to put Sharia in control of ObamaCARE.
This will definitely NOT end well.
Here we go, to the lowest bidder. SERCO is a UK company but this project will be staffed in India, Philippines, and anywhere else labor can be found for $20 per day with call centers to answer your every question and assist .gov in applying this debacle. So not only does not a single person in the US understand all the thousands of pages of law/regulation the decisions will be made by folks that don’t even speak the language much less have a stake in the outcome.
Oh, look. European “healthcare”, fondly known as “Murder INC”, taking over the US market.
No worries. The Eurabians know how to subcontract.
They did manage to ban Aspirin on a whole continent, more or less.
Well hey if you wanted people who were familiar with a failing health system falling into bankruptcy which also killed lots of old people then a UK company is the obvious choice.
sfl
Beware-RFIDS ARE COMING!!!!
Beware-RFIDS ARE COMING!!!!
Anyone have an excuse for the US Congress sitting and playing with each other rather than protecting the country from tyranny?
Sorry about the double post.
In all seriousness this obozocare will be the catalyst ushering in the widespread use of human tracking and personal information gathering-RFIDs. All your financial, medical and other information will be available to the gubermint to do with as they please.
Soon this will be a cashless society...read between the lines.
The data will be housed in the Utah data center that is being constructed.
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