DHHS

It was bad enough that Secretary Wos tried to place the blame for the GOP's Medicaid meltdown on Commissioner Goodwin. But now she says her comments were taken out of context? Seriously?

“In reference to your roundabout way of commenting about Medicaid expansion … in North Carolina, based on our constitution, the issue of Medicaid expansion or not, actually, was the commissioner of insurance’s,” Wos said. “Just so that you all know that and are aware of that.”

Secretary Wos lied and got caught. Instead of apologizing, she's offered nothing but a bunch of double-talk. She should resign.

It looks like Governor Pope is continuing North Carolina's off-and-on tradition of appointing political hacks to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Be sure to watch between 1:00 and 1:30 in the video, where Wos lavishes praise on the intellectual majesty of the well-read George W. Bush.

Based on this video, it's hard to imagine Pope could have found a more inappropriate person to further degrade DHHS over the next four years. Wos may be an exceptional physician and a good fundraiser, but her ability to smile while lying through her teeth should give everyone pause.

Hat tip to Progressive Pulse.

From an AP story on WRAL.com:

"County legislators who want to delay closure at the hospital that opened in 1856 will need the support of other colleagues during the 2011 session. Many argue Dix exemplifies the failings of mental health reforms in North Carolina that haven’t made up for a 44 percent reduction in the number of institutional beds."

“Several years ago the mental health reform process was assumed to work, and it hasn’t,” said Rep. Deborah Ross, D-Wake, who plans to file a bill to try to prevent the closure if she’s re-elected.

____________________________________________________________________________

The Perdue Administration’s statement:

Education is getting slashed across the state. Mental Health is being decimated. Now all our other social services are going under the hatchet as well. To put this in perspective, the money saved in this budget will be a drop in the bucket compared to the strain put on counties and municipalities across the state. It will fall to us to provide services for our most vulnerable populations - children, disabled, mentally ill, elderly. The problem, of course, is that we local governments don't have any money either. Non-profits are struggling as well. Families are losing jobs and making enormous sacrifices to make ends meet.

This move by legislators is shortsighted and irresponsible. We'll be paying for it one way or another, and all of us will be affected.

AC-T:

The General Assembly has proposed slashing $2.4 billion from the state's Department of Health and Human Services budget over the next two years in an attempt to close a $4 billion budget gap.

In all, 717 state jobs in human services would be cut, and programs like N.C. Health Choice, the children's health insurance plan for low-income families, would be slashed.

After listening (on the radio) to President Obama's speech to the Marines today, I thought I would let you folks know some of the things I've been getting into in the last few weeks. The President talked about supporting the troops before, during and after deployment, and he also alluded to post-deployment issues like PTSD and other, more noticeable combat-related afflictions and injuries. The fact that he "gets" how important these things are, and is willing to discuss them honestly and without reservation, is a sign he will make a good, and possibly great, Commander-In-Chief.

An assistant to Secretary of Health and Human Services Carmen Hooker Odom came to the DHHS lobby to greet us yesterday. She reported that (1) Secretary Odom was out of the office in very important meetings; (2) that Secretary Odom was carefully answering every email she'd been sent; (3) that it was impossible to give us an idea of when the Secretary would be available or to give us any part of the Secretary's schedule; (4) that Secretary Odom hadn't yet started to respond to the emails because she was waiting on more information from the Division of Medical Assistance.

She's a lying tool of a furious, arrogant, isolated Secretary.

Secretary Odom isn't responding to anyone's emails. She's not interested in gathering correct data, as evidenced by her willingness to throw the entire mental health system into crisis without even doing a proper cost analysis before retroactively slashing rates for mental health services. She's not meeting with providers or recipients of mental health services. She's cowering in her bunker, hoping the whole mess will blow over.