Althouse: James O’Keefe exposes some Obamacare "navigators."

November 12, 2013

James O’Keefe exposes some Obamacare "navigators."

Description and video here.

36 comments:

damikesc said...: Note to media:

This. Is. How. You. Do. Journalism.

Stop buying the damned press releases and actually investigate somebody.

James O'Keefe should be a damned icon in the media, but he is castigated and maligned because he spoke the "wrong" truth to the "wrong" power.; 11/12/13, 2:07 PM
BigFire said...: The fraud is not a bug but feature. Many of these 'navigators' are operatives of Acorn, rebadged.; 11/12/13, 2:12 PM
Hagar said...: O'Keefe did not "bring down" ACORN; it just metastasized and metamorphosed, ordered up new letterheads, and kept on truckin'.; 11/12/13, 2:14 PM
Hagar said...: O'Keefe did not "bring down" ACORN; it just metastasized and metamorphosed, ordered up new letterheads, and kept on truckin'.; 11/12/13, 2:14 PM
damikesc said...: So, progressivism is like a cockroach?

Yeah, I can see that.; 11/12/13, 2:15 PM
Matt Sablan said...: I want to be surprised, yet ... nothing.; 11/12/13, 2:19 PM
DanTheMan said...: Take money frrom folks that vote against us, and "redistribute" it to folks who vote for us.

That's the Chicago way.; 11/12/13, 2:26 PM
Strelnikov said...: Fortunately, due to the source, this is not news.; 11/12/13, 2:29 PM
Paul said...: Fraud? Obama's whole administration is fraud. Especially his second term.

IRS suppressed voters. Obama strait out LIED to everyone about Obamacare. DNC and Obama donors got contracts for 'green' energy that failed time and time again. Acorn people got tons of jobs with the Planned Parenthood scheme (and lots of fraud just like the new, navigators ripoff.)

So what's the big deal about O'keefe's expose. Nothing unusual here!; 11/12/13, 2:37 PM
MadisonMan said...: This. Is. How. You. Do. Journalism.

Bears repeating. Journalists should investigate, not regurgitate.; 11/12/13, 2:49 PM
alan markus said...: Looks like the Voter Registration requirement part of Obamacare will work as designed - for something that important they are using the best of the best(former ACORNers.)

Too bad HHS couldn't have done that on the IT side - instead of getting the best computer help, they used well connected donor/bundlers and government employees.

So, it looks like Obamacare will serve it's intended purpose - as a conduit to funnel money into electing Democrats, at least most of the time. Any leftist fantasies about single payer - forget about it, unless it can be done without stopping the flow of money that benefits the Democratic Party. This is about health care for "the poor & disadvantaged"? Maybe in name only.

And just to be fair,I have no doubts that somewhere along the line, there are some Republicans (maybe on the insurance/pharmacy side)that are getting their share too. Perhaps that is why they don't fight too hard on this.

Someday, people will wish that the Tea Party had been more effective.; 11/12/13, 3:05 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I thought that it was quite humorous. Over at Volokh.com, the response to my mentioning this is that is should be ignored because O'Keefe is a criminal. Not addressing, of course, the merits of his video. And, that they may not have really been Navigators. I pointed out that most of what O'Keefe has video recorded and posted has been accurate, and when not, has been quickly retracted. So, I have little doubt that if these people are not really, fact, Navigators, etc., that we will quickly find out.

Of course the Navigator program was a sitting duck, just waiting for one of O'Keefe's exposes. The Secretary has already admitted that not all states require any sort of security clearance or the like for their Navigators, and that, yes, criminals could get jobs as such. She, of course, blamed the states, ignoring that she is the one who is effectively disbursing the money for the program.; 11/12/13, 3:24 PM
Anonymous said...: Journalism costs time & money. It's become unbundled from its old revenue model, or the package which supported much of it.

Maybe that was you paying for Newsweek b/c the wife liked it or some laziness of vague sense of duty when the daily rag showed up on the doorstep.

Few people are paying, and it shows.

This is aside from any political bias, ideological and other issues in my opinion.; 11/12/13, 3:27 PM
damikesc said...: Bruce, it also ignores WHY he is a "criminal".

Sen Landrieu's constituents were unable to reach her to argue against her voting for Obamacare and her office claimed a phone problem.

He went to investigate if the office phones worked and if they had any known outages recently.

THAT was his crime.; 11/12/13, 3:40 PM
Kirby Olson said...: This was on Huckabee's radio program all afternoon. It's very similar to what the IRS was doing under Obama. He apparently will use any government network to fund his cronies and defund his enemies, and will hire anyone willing to do the dirty work. It's rather wild.; 11/12/13, 3:43 PM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: No we've got some bona fide lying. You'd think organizations like these would use past O'Keefe films as training videos.; 11/12/13, 3:43 PM
Kirby Olson said...: This was on Huckabee's radio program all afternoon. It's very similar to what the IRS was doing under Obama. He apparently will use any government network to fund his cronies and defund his enemies, and will hire anyone willing to do the dirty work. It's rather wild.; 11/12/13, 3:43 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Bruce, it also ignores WHY he is a "criminal".

In other words, he is willing to pay the price to get the story. Think of this country if the rest of the reporters in this country were half as heroic in their quest for the truth.; 11/12/13, 4:03 PM
JHapp said...: 3 guys in 3 days built thehealthsherpa.com which completely obsoletes healthcare.gov. Reminds ne of that famous quote "You didn't build that".; 11/12/13, 4:15 PM
JHapp said...: Sorry, but I can't spell without government help, ne should be me.; 11/12/13, 4:18 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Considering how badly people are being ripped off by the ACA, I'm all out of outrage. "Government hires scammers who scam the government." I know people who can't afford health insurance now. Expect a tidal wave of fraud by people trying to figure out how to get by.; 11/12/13, 4:33 PM
The Godfather said...: When I was practicing law in Washington, DC, I dealt with a lot of people and organizations that were committed to helping the poor and powerless. Sometimes they were my adversaries (I often represented real estate interests), but sometimes they were my clients (I did as much pro bono work as I could). I find O'Keefe's videos plausible (although obviously I can't say that they are true). A lot of people who are committed to helping the poor and powerless are absolutely convinced that the power structure will oppress the ones they want to help and the only way to beat them is to fool them, mislead them, cheat them. That's what these videos look like to me.; 11/12/13, 4:36 PM
Titus said...: How does one become a government navigator?; 11/12/13, 4:39 PM
Titus said...: "This was on Huckabee's radio program all afternoon".

You admit to listening to Huckabee on the radio all afternoon...I'm sorry.; 11/12/13, 4:45 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: A lot of people who are committed to helping the poor and powerless are absolutely convinced that the power structure will oppress the ones they want to help and the only way to beat them is to fool them, mislead them, cheat them.

Which is, in this case, at least partially true.; 11/12/13, 4:50 PM
Titus said...: I wonder what the base salary of a navigator is? I am guessing 25k. With maybe "incentives" when you get peeps to register on Obamacare. Perhaps 100.00 or 25.00 a registration.; 11/12/13, 5:01 PM
cubanbob said...: Patronage? It's the Chicago way! It's time to dispense with the pious nonsense of neutral, competent and ethical government workers and contractors. Lets get back to honest graft and remove the civil service 'reforms' and bring back old-school patronage. The Democrats take care of their own when they are in and the Republicans get to fire them all when they get back in.; 11/12/13, 5:07 PM
cubanbob said...: Titus said...
I wonder what the base salary of a navigator is? I am guessing 25k. With maybe "incentives" when you get peeps to register on Obamacare. Perhaps 100.00 or 25.00 a registration.

11/12/13, 5:01 PM

Can't remember exactly where but I remember reading something closer to 40 to 45k a year. Not to shabby for ex-cons.; 11/12/13, 5:08 PM
Michael K said...: Look upon the Navigator program as rehabilitation for ex-cons. Plus some free market activity and entrepreneurship.

What could be wrong with that ?; 11/12/13, 5:32 PM
Seeing Red said...: ...A lot of people who are committed to helping the poor and powerless are absolutely convinced that the power structure will oppress the ones they want to help and the only way to beat them is to fool them, mislead them, cheat them. That's what these videos look like to me."

I wonder who they vote for?; 11/12/13, 6:01 PM
Titus said...: I conduct compensation surveys constantly for my job. The surveys I conduct are for highly educated and technical peeps that make in the high 100's to 200s....natch.

I am fascinated by salaries based on expertise and geography.

Many small towns in Wisconsin have an average salary of 19,000 and I wonder....how the hell can they survive?

Small town comps are generally not that good but fuck 19k, 31k, 41k-how the fuck are you able to live?

Granted you live in Hell where stuff is cheaper but still. And all their children leave immediately for large cities. Kind of sad.
tits.; 11/12/13, 6:54 PM
FullMoon said...: Not all ex-convicts are bad people.
I suspect there are future ex-cons commenting here who are not aware of their future status.; 11/12/13, 6:56 PM
Titus said...: My parents just sold their hunting lodge with a ton of acres in Bruce Wisconsin for over 500k. The guy who bought it is paying in full. The property is on the "mighty chip". This retired man owned a landscaping busines in Holcombe Wisconsin-population like 500. I was seriously impressed and shocked that someone in them there parts had that kind of money.

Our family thought for sure it was going to be someone from Minneapolis.

The best part of the story is my mom told me that they are going to "help me" with some of the proceeds.

Finally they are starting to release some of that cash!

But it better not be like here is 5k enjoy. I want like 200k.; 11/12/13, 6:58 PM
David said...: The navigator program is being subcontracted to various "community organizations" around the country. It's a nice perk for them, as they get compensation for administration and have jobs to hand out. The reporting on the navigator system is, to say the least, not illuminating. I've read compensation estimates from $15/hour to $45k per year. Many articles, probably plagiarizing each other, say $20-45 per hour.

Likely most navigators will be part timers, or persons with another job looking for a side or temporary gig. I've found no references to literacy, experience or competence standards for hires. Apparently every agency with a contract--there are hundreds and probably will be thousands--sets their own rules.

The navigators are supposed to be trained. Several stories I read said that the training requirement was 20 hours. The training materials were very late in coming and reportedly aren't that great. The key to a successful training program is to train the trainers. I find no evidence they are doing that.

Integrity will be an issue. There's seemingly no oversight of this. If the agency getting the contract is populated by liars and cheats, they will hire liars and cheats or train people to be such. If the agency has integrity, the navigators are more likely to have integrity.

It looks to me like the biggest problem is going to be the lack of usefulness of the navigators, not their lack of integrity. The program has weak structure, loose standards, poor training and will not be attractive to highly skilled people.

At worst It's a jobs program, and a buy-a-vote program. At its best it will just be a failure.; 11/12/13, 7:04 PM
chickelit said...: At its best it will just be a failure.

Yet another. How many more before the majority is allowed to take notice?; 11/12/13, 9:29 PM
Matt Sablan said...: I think someone actually got fired over this. And no one even had to die! Unlike F&F and Benghazi. Apparently, embarrassing the administration is a more serious offense than incompetence that leads to dead people.; 11/13/13, 6:54 AM