Pew Research Center Article on Privatizing Social Services

[cosmik debris]

I am amazed at how often Texas has become the laughing stock of the entire nation since we allowed Republicans to take control.


"Some 27,000 kids in the pilot program inadvertently were dropped from health insurance coverage, and poor, elderly and handicapped applicants routinely were put on hold for more than 20 minutes, with more than half of all callers hanging up. Thousands waited longer than federal rules permit to find out whether they qualified for urgently needed state assistance, according to state officials.

And in a highly publicized gaffe, Accenture employees mistakenly faxed more than a hundred long-term care applications containing Social Security numbers and sensitive medical information to a Seattle warehouse."

http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=131960

[sonias]

1. Laughing stock of the entire nation

That is the goal of republican leadership in Texas. Keep in mind that the republican leadership is still backing Accenture and the terrible failure it has been. Nothing has gotten better with that contract. But that's the whole point, they want to cut down on providing services by making it harder to get them.

In an analysis of privatization of state and local services over the last 20 years, Warner concluded that the majority of projects failed because of deteriorating quality of service. And in more than half the cases, the projects did not save taxpayer dollars, she said.

I'm with Chris Bell on this one. We should keep demanding a return to public welfare screening. These private companies are total screw-ups when it comes to providing cost effective, good services that our tax money pays for. No more privatization!

Sonia