GOP critics: Hassan donor paid to play

New Hampshire Union Leader

Oct. 12--CONCORD -- One of the companies that manages the state's Medicaid program was a big contributor to Democrat Maggie Hassan's campaigns when she was running for governor, but has given next to nothing now that she is running for the U.S. Senate where, if elected, she will not in a position to promote multi-million-dollar state contracts.

Republican critics of the governor call it another example of "pay to play."

A spokesman for Hassan said the claim is unfounded and being promoted by Republicans who oppose expanding Medicaid coverage to another 50,000 low-income residents.

"These charges regarding political contributions are merely baseless political attacks motivated by the desire of those who want to take this critical health coverage away from thousands of hard-working Granite Staters," said Hassan's Communications Director, William Hinkle.

Republican State Sen. Andy Sanborn, chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, says Centene's on-again, off-again contributions reveal the true motive.

"If they truly believed in Maggie Hassan as a candidate for whatever office, there would be an expectation that they would be giving to her Senate candidacy," he said. "In this case, they donated to her and the Democratic Governors Association around the issues that they were advocating for, and once they got the solution they wanted, they moved on to something else."

A spokesperson for Centene said employees of the company are free to contribute to any candidate they choose and some personal contributions have been made to both candidates for the U.S. Senate.

"Centene makes contributions to both the Republican Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association, as well as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee," the company wrote in an email.

Lucrative contract

The Missouri-based health-care management company, party to some of the most lucrative contracts in state history, has been a major donor to Hassan's gubernatorial campaigns both directly and through the Democratic Governors Association since 2012.

Now operating on the online Obamacare exchange as New Hampshire Healthy Families, Centene or its officers contributed nearly $50,000 to Hassan's campaign committee over two election cycles, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Secretary of State.

The donations started in October 2012, when candidate Hassan argued for expanding Medicaid in New Hampshire under Obamacare during her campaign for governor, and continued in the ensuing years as her administration presided over the expansion and conversion of Medicaid to a HMO-style "managed care" program under Centene and WellSense.

The largest donation came in early December 2013, when Centene began coordinating services for many of New Hampshire's 135,000 traditional Medicaid recipients. Between Dec. 3-4, Centene executives and the Centene corporation contributed a combined $34,000 to Friends of Maggie Hassan for her 2014 campaign.

A $292 million sole-source contract with Centene and WellSense to manage the expanded Medicaid program for the first year was brought before the Executive Council as a late item in July 2014, and passed on a party line 3-2 vote, at Hassan's urging.

Councilor Chris Sununu accused the three Democrats on the council, including Colin Van Ostern, of rubber-stamping the sole-source, 200-page contract they had not even read at the time.

Contributions continue

The contributions from Centene to the Hassan campaign continued into 2015, including a $5,000 donations to Hassan's inaugural committee in January.

In August 2015, Centene and WellSense were awarded a $1.6 billion Medicaid contract extension, the largest single deal in state history, to run the state's Medicaid program.

When Hassan announced her run for Senate in October of that year, Centene donations to her campaign stopped. According to Federal Election Commission reports, one Centene vice president, Wade Rakes, has made two $35 donations to Hassan's Senate campaign against incumbent Republican Kelly Ayotte.

The Centene donations could not have affected Hassan's Medicaid policies, according to Hinkle, because the takeover of the Medicaid program by Centene and other private companies was signed into law by Hassan's predecessor, Democratic Gov. John Lynch.

The legislation expanding Medicaid to another 50,000 people was implemented under Hassan's watch, but state law required that the expansion be managed by the same companies, Centene and WellSense, that already had the contract for traditional Medicaid.

"The bipartisan legislation creating the New Hampshire Health Protection Program required the state to use the existing managed care organizations in New Hampshire," he said. "The contracts were negotiated and in place before Gov. Hassan entered office."

But Sanborn said the Legislature did not develop the law expanding Medicaid in a vacuum but as a negotiated compromise with Hassan.

"This legislation was a negotiated compact driven by the governor and those who supported her position," he said. "It comes directly from her office negotiating and advocating for what she wants to see in the legislation."

NHGOP Chair Jennifer Horn on Tuesday announced a Right-to-Know request to Hassan's office requesting a list of all of the no-bid or single-source contracts that have been awarded in the past year.

dsolomon@unionleader.com

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