Ige has hard task of dealing with Connector wreckage

It took a while to do, but on Friday, Gov. David Ige made good on one of his early political promises.

During a debate with former Gov. Neil Abercrombie last August, Ige said: "I will seek to correct an error of the current governor, who failed to request regulatory flexibility for the requirements of the federal Affordable Care Act that weaken Hawaii’s Prepaid Health Care Law."

"The Connector received a $205 million grant from the federal government, but has been a disaster. The Connector unworkable on the day it was scheduled to start, and, nine months later, the Connector has enrolled less than 1 percent of the population," Ige charged.

Abercrombie tried to argue that he was just following the rules handed him by the Legislature, including Ige, but the truth was that Abercrombie had been one of the first to sign on to the state’s version of "Obamacare" and the insurance exchange.

Ige ditched the plan last week. Its main accomplishment had been to suck $130 million out of a $203 million federal grant offered via the Affordable Care Act to set up the health exchange.

Earlier, in one of the most sharply worded reports issued by the legislative auditor, the exchange was called "unsustainable," with its board members unaware or unable to prevent the looming disaster.

"Contracts were awarded without following proper procedures to ensure competitive pricing and procurement documentation was disorganized or missing from most contract files," said Jan Yamane, acting auditor.

The plan proved to be a slow-moving train wreck that officials said was out of compliance with the federal rules and could lose $1 billion in Medicaid funds, if new plans were not accepted by the feds.

As it stands now, the 40,000 enrolled in the Hawaii Connector will have to sign up again and the state will have to spend $30 million on the transition to the federal marketplace, according to reports by Star-Advertiser reporter Kristen Consillio.

The retreat was marked by Ige — with a terse, seven-paragraph news release —who said, "The state remains committed to offering health care coverage through the Prepaid Health Care Act as it has for the past 40 years."

Nationally, the Hawaii missteps have been a constant talking point for the GOP.

The Republican Governor’s Association during last year’s campaign season called it "Neil Abercrombie’s Unmitigated Obamacare Disaster."

Last week, the Senate’s only Republican, Sen. Sam Slom, described the Hawaii Connector as "a failed project. It was a boondoggle from the very beginning."

When Abercrombie first put Hawaii in play by linking up with the Health Connector, there were obvious political links, such as Obama’s home state becoming the first state to formally join in with one of Obama’s most controversial programs.

And the politics continued as Abercrombie tried to disengage from the plan’s inception.

"What is the Health Connector? It’s completely a creation of the Legislature. My friends, the Health Connector didn’t suddenly appear," Abercrombie offered as an explanation last year.

Now in 2015, it is up to Ige to untangle the Health Connector wreckage, a process that is likely to earn few political points, but lots of jeers if he fails.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.