State health exchange caught engaging in highly partisan politics - Shift Washington (2024)

A document obtained by a recent public records request exposes the highly partisan nature of the taxpayer-funded Washington Healthplanfinder—our state’s online Obamacare exchange. An email sent by Washington Health Benefit Exchange CEO Richard Onizuka details how the Exchange proposes to supplement voter registration via the Healthplanfinder website, the call center, and through navigators and in-person assisters.

The fact that Obamacare is in the business of voter registration is old news. As a part of the [un]Affordable Care Act, enrollees are offered the opportunity— through exchange websites—to register to vote.Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesman Brian Cook toldthe Washington Post back in 2013that theNational Voter Registration Act of 1993is to blame. According to Cook, the law “requires states to offer voter registration [at] all offices that provide ‘public assistance’ (including Medicaid applications). Because people applying onhealthcare.govcould be eligible for either Medicaid or Marketplace coverage, we will be providing info on voter registration to people who request it.”

Of course, registering voters via Obamacare websites gives Democrats a major political advantage. Uninsured Americans supported Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by awhopping 40 percent margin.

It’s not the fact that Healthplanfinder is supplementing voter registration—or even the clear advantage to Democrats—that exposes the highly partisan agenda of our state’s Exchange. Rather, it is to whom Onizuka chose to send the actual letter informingthemof how the Exchangewasproposingto go about setting up voter registration that raises a red flag.

Onizuka addresses the letter to the who’s who of liberal organizations, on both the state and national level. Notably, the letter is not sentto a single conservative organization. Not one.

Here’s the list of recipients who Onizuka directly addressed in the letter:

1. Dana Laurent of the Win/Win Network

The harmless sounding “Win/Win Network” is actually a liberal attack network based out of Seattle. The organizationchampions liberal causesand hasclose tiesto the far-left Progress Alliance of Washington.Laurent herself ran for the chairmanship of the state Democrat Party in 2014, but was defeated.

2. Niyati Shah of Project Vote

Project Vote started off asProject VOTE!, a Chicago voter registration drivesuccessfully run by noneother than Barack Obama in 1992. From 1994 to 2008, Project Vote worked closely with ACORN. In fact, prior to ACORN’s downfall, Project Vote’sboard members also had membershipin the now disgraced organization.

3. Jenn Rolnick Borchetta of Demos

Demos is a liberal “think tank”which featured Barack Obama as aco-founding board memberwhile he was still an Illinois state Senator. The organization is financed by George Soros.

4. Alan Martinson of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Since its founding by the request of John F. Kennedy, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has moved farther and farther to the left as time progresses. The organization has close ties toProject Vote and Demos. It haspast affiliationswith ACORN.

The list of recipientscopied byOnizuka onthis letteriscomprisedofa variety offar-left organizations,local labor groupswhich operate inour stateto elect Democrats, and a few elected officials. Here’s the list:

1. League of Women Voters of Washington
2. Statewide Poverty Action Network
3. Public School Employees of WA/SEIU 1948
4. SEIU Local 925
5. WA Federation of State Employees/AFSCME, Council 28
6. Washington State Council of Fire Fighters
7. Washington Bus
8. African Diaspora of Washington
9. Children’s Alliance
10. Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
11. Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest
12. 21 Progress
13. Washington Low Income Housing Alliance
14. UAW Local 4121
15. Washington CAN!
16. SEIU Healthcare 1199NW
17. OneAmerica
18. SEIU Healthcare 775NW
19. Asian Pacific Islander Americans for Civic Engagement (APACE)
20. State Rep. Sam Hunt (Democrat)
21. Office of the Governor
22. Secretary of State’s Office
23. Washington Health Benefit Exchange Board
24. Office of the Attorney General

Is it surprising thatOnizuka could not even think of a single conservative organizationto copy on his email? The choice to leave out any conservative– or even non-Left –affiliated groups from communication concerning how the Exchange will go about registering enrollees to vote reveals the blatant agenda behind the Obamacare voter registration push: get Democrats elected.

The Exchange faced several embarrassing setbacks since its launch. Fromovercharging enrolleestocharging for insurance enrollees don’t actually havetovarious other website “glitches,” the Exchange has faced mess after mess with no truly viable solution. During the last open enrollment period, the Exchange fellshort of its goal bymore than 20%.

AsShift reported, the Exchange’s failureto attract paying customers—not Medicaid enrollees—adds strain to taxpayers who will carry the responsibility for the unmet costs to run the exchange. That’s because the exchange is funded through three mechanisms: “a tax on insurance premiums paid in the exchange, a tax on insurance companies selling policies in the exchange and state taxpayer money that funnels through the state Health Care Authority.”If the exchange’s enrollment goals are not met, the money from the premium tax and the insurance company tax is simply not there to meet costs.

So, perhaps rather than engaging in highly partisan politics, the Exchange would better serve the public by actually fixing its many, many messes and attracting paying customers.