Dark Money PAC coming after Dale Folwell
This is the sad part about politics. You get into government, make an honest attempt at doing some good to benefit the taxpayers, and a bunch of anonymous leeches on the government teat compile a bunch of special interest money to finance turning you into a grease spot on the floor.
State treasurer Dale Folwell just wants the providers who do business with the state health plan to be transparent about their billing practices with the state health plan. The providers, led by eastern North Carolina’s Vidant Health, have ferociously pushed back with a PR campaign.
With that appearing to not sway Folwell, they’ve turned to UNC Board of Governors member and former Civitas board member (as well as legal counsel to senator Ralph Hise) Steve Long to establish a dark money PAC to really turn the screws on Folwell:
A new group wants to raise $2.5 million to fight State Treasurer Dale Folwell’s plan to reduce health care spending for about 720,000 state employees and retirees.
Starting in 2020, Folwell wants to begin compensating hospitals, physicians and others at 177% of what is paid by Medicare, the federal health insurance plan for people 65 and over. He’s responsible for the N.C. State Health Plan, the biggest purchaser of N.C. health care services.
The new Partners for Innovation in Health Care has started running advertisements slamming Folwell’s proposal, which both sides agree could trim spending by more than $300 million annually. The plan would ration care and access, jeopardize the quality of care, “cripple local operations and services in every single healthcare system” across the state and cause employee layoffs, according to the group’s new website. Costs would be shifted to other N.C. health care consumers, they add.
To pay for the marketing program, the group has created a four-level membership structure ranging from $10,000 to $125,000 a year for the next six years, the website notes. Members will receive briefings and updates on legislative actions.
Joyce Kohn, a Cary-based fundraiser and public relations consultant, is the only contact listed on the website. She declined to comment, saying she didn’t have authority to speak on the group’s behalf. Julie Henry, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Healthcare Association, says that the hospital-industry group is not the sponsor of Partners for Innovation.[…]
(FYI — Joyce Kohn is also a frequent fundraising consultant for the folks at NCGOP HQ.) Well, it appears treasurer Folwell is not the least bit impressed or intimidated by this news:
[…] Folwell says he won’t change his strategy. “I’m focused on three things: bringing transparency to health care, lowering cost and pushing power out to state employees and retirees so they can make choices on their own health care,” he says. […]
Of course, Folwell’s former colleagues and fellow party members on Jones Street are ready to stab him in the back to keep those special interest dollars flowing into their pockets:
[…] The N.C. General Assembly, which recently started its session, is likely to discuss legislation that would limit Folwell’s authority over the health plan. Vidant Health, the Greenville-based system that offers services in nearly 30 counties in eastern N.C., has organized opposition to Folwell’s proposal by meeting with community leaders and media outlets.
Folwell has emphasized his concern about North Carolina’s promise to provide more than $30 billion of health care for retired state employees, of which less than 5% has been set aside. It’s one of the worst-funded state health plans in the nation and tough decisions are needed to resolve the under-funding, he says.
Dale Folwell has been the kind of leader in state government we have been begging for. It looks like it’s going to be up to us little people to help keep the rats from chasing him off the ship of state.
Everyone in North Carolina who knows Dale Folwell knows he is unwavering in his committment to do what is right for ALL North Carolinians and can’t be bullied, pushed or stopped from his quest to always do the right thing. It is hard to turn tens of years of financial mismanagement around on a dime but big, bold steps are needed to keep North Carolina on the winning trajectory of the past few years, regardless of some hiccups along the way. Please join me in supporting Dale publically and with your time, energy and dollars when he stands for re-election.
AMEN Brother
I stand with Carl.
Browny Douglas
Dale Folwell is a true hero. Vidant is a true special interest monopoly villain.
Joyce Kohn needs to be fired by NCGOP if she is worked against a GOP Council of State incumbent.
I’m proud to have voted for Dale Folwell.
Dale Fowell is a selfless public servant working hard to do the right thing, he is an oddity in today’s political environment. Too bad more men and women who share his level of commitment and integrity don’t seek public office.
The Hospital Association may not be sponsoring the campaign against Folwell but their members probably are.
Folwell should be supported by all honest people. He is fighting a system of corruption. Honest men are dangerous. Folwell is honest.
Vidant is running a local campaign against Folwell’s work. When a resolution was presented at the January Beaufort County Commission meet to support Folwell, Commissioner Frankie Waters said he could not support the resolution because it would cost Vidant 40 million dollars. Waters has been a water boy for Vidant for a long time. He agressively supported the closing of the Belhaven hospital. Keeping it open would have been competition to Vidant. The motion to support Folwell failed.
There is enough wasted money in the hospital systems in North Carolina to buy every politician in Raleigh. They run large lobbying campaigns. They make the solar energy crowd look like pikers.
Folwell is smart and crafty. He will clean their clock on health care costs before it is over with.
Commissioner Richardson, you’re being tactful by not adding that the commission you serve on is composed of seven, and five are Republicans.
Over the last several years, some of the doctors in Greenville probably saved my life, but as a North Carolina citizen and someone on a state health plan, I see nothing unreasonable about what our state treasurer is requesting.
Commissioner Waters is supposed to be a Beaufort County Commissioner, but he is really Michael Waldrum’s pet parrot.
Looks to me as though we have a Trump-like swamp drainer right here in our own State government. Excellent! Go ye Mr. Folwell, and smite the heathens hip and thigh!!!
An absolute fact… honest men are dangerous.
Richard Carter Jr
Dark Money my buttocks…
We all know that the money is coming from the Hospital Monopolies.
Treasurer Folwell is doing an outstanding job. He is a great Steward of our Money.
You have to question why the hospitals choose NOT to be transparent about pricing.
These monopolies have thrown up some smoke and mirrors to scare folks in rural counties. It’s not working folks. Rural Healthcare is already dead thanks to these same monopolies and their RESTRICTIVE CON LAWS.
It’s pay to play my friends. Believe it.
Don’t put anything past the Antifa Republicans and their funders. They’ll destroy Dale Folwell just like they allowed campus radicals to destroy the Silent Sam Veterans Monument. The Raleigh Republican swamp is infested with dangerous creatures.
Art, I sadly agree with you. True Talk.
Interesting to read. Vidant leading the charge. Umm.. I wonder if “conservative” Dr. Murphy is behind this dark charge..?
I think it’s a safe bet that Murphy was ‘chosen’ by Vidant. It’s also highly likely Commissioner Waters, mentioned earlier, is also.
Hey Brant. Interesting commentary. Is it possible Dr. Greg Murphy is involved in this coalition? I know he was in favor of Medicaid expansion.
Murphy, Dobson, and Lambeth and now Donna White are running a Medicaid Expansion Bill. Of course its not titled Medicaid Expansion. The title uses the buzz word Care”
Rinos Unite.
Today, 1/31, I hard the first Anti-Dale commercial which made me sick. Almost like candidates who stretch the truth with alligations that are so unbelievable they are almost laughable. Stay strong, Mr. Treasurer, we have your six!
So the state doesn’t give any money to Vidant. They are a non profit hosiptal. By cutting the fees for the state employees it has a much bigger impact on hospitals such as vivant that server eastern nc. First, Vidants covers most of the poorest counties in the state of NC at a much higher rate of medicare/medicare than any other hospital system. Second, Vidant has a high percentage of State Employees. ECU, County School Systems (which are often largets employees in the counties they serve). Access to care is critical, some of these counties in ENC will be hit that hardest when served with a 40 million dollars cut in 1 year.
Educate yourself before you start blabbbbbiing
Didn’t Murphy sell his practice to Vidant?
Nope. Fake news. Still owns it with PARTNERS.
Dale Folwell is the best of the best in my fifty years of observing Elected Public Servants in the six states I have lived in! North Carolina is a sovereign Nation and must make it unlawful for any campaign money coming from outside North Carolina. George Soros, Tom Styer, the medical establishment, et al, are non-resident, subversives working for the crony-capitalists of the District of Columbia! A Constitutional Amendment is needed to put a STOP to this medling in our State!
Dale Folwell is one of the very best public servants I’ve ever seen at work.
First, he got the state’s workmen’s compensation “chesnut” out of the fire, and now he’s hard at work solving the “unfunded mandate” conundrum. He has come up with a sensible, reasonable way to begin, and he’s under fire for it from the medical people who have been creaming off our tax money.
If anyone who represents me comes out against Dale Folwell’s plan, I intend to check their campaign donors for medical organizations and check on the amounts given. You might want to do something similar with your representatives.
Dale Folwell deserves our support.