New Report: New Mexico Dem Gov Candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham Profited Off Sick Patients, Frivolous Government Contracts

A new shocking report from Politico is lending even greater credence to allegations of corruption against New Mexico Democrat gubernatorial candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham.

According to the report, a company run and founded by Lujan Grisham was paid “millions of dollars” to run New Mexico’s high-risk pool for seriously ill patients, even after the program was “virtually obsolete” and charging “10 percent higher” than another available program. Astonishingly, payments to Lujan Grisham’s firm increased, even as enrollment dropped, leading one former minority whip of the New Mexico House to call the arrangement “fraud.”

The revelations also raise serious questions about to what extent Lujan Grisham used her position in Congress, as well as her extensive political connections, to “pressure” state officials to “keep the program open.”

Lujan Grisham made a fortune off her firm that ripped off sick patients and taxpayers. New Mexicans can’t trust her to be their governor.

Politico reports:

“Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the leading Democratic candidate for governor in New Mexico, profited from the state’s use of a high-priced health-insurance program for seriously ill patients, even after Obamacare made such programs virtually obsolete.

As most states were shuttering their subsidized health-insurance programs for people with pre-existing conditions because they could get coverage through Obamacare, a firm co-founded by Lujan Grisham and a close political ally received millions of dollars to run New Mexico’s program, even as she served in Congress.

The state’s high risk pool is still open even though its premiums are higher on average than Obamacare — 10 percent higher this year — and while all but nine of the 35 states that once had such programs either shut them down or cut off new enrollment. It also continued despite efforts by New Mexico Republicans to curtail the program.

….

In 2009, the firm received the state contract to run the high-risk pool under a competitive-bid process. Between 2014, when Obamacare took effect, and 2017, Delta Consulting Group was paid more than $2 million to run the program, according to contracts POLITICO obtained through a public records request. Its annual payments increased to more than $600,000, even as enrollment dropped.”