He resident police candidate Washington for the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, he blamed on Tuesday, the resident commissioner Jenniffer González and to the “internal war” in the New Progressive Party (PNP) by the loss of 1 billion dollars of funds Medicaid and called it false and irresponsible to affirm that in Puerto Rico there is “extra money” to cover the population’s health needs, as González expressed yesterday on social media.
Likewise, the former popular governor maintained that the incompetence and neglect of the PNP government has left 1.4 million people the possibility of expanding existing services and receiving possible temporary subsidies that could be funded by the federal Medicaid program.
“It is highly irresponsible for Jenniffer González to say that there is ‘extra money’ or a surplus of resources, when we have 250,000 Puerto Ricans who do not have medical coverage, including thousands of children and adolescents, we also have another 493,984 elderly people belonging to the Medicare program they also need help with drug costs. This gross negligence demonstrates the total improvisation and callousness of the resident commissioner and the PNP government, who, in a whole year, instead of having invested their time in finding solutions to this situation, chose to try to advance the statehood that it will never come. This is unforgivable. ”Acevedo Vilá stated in a written communication.
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He recalled that since last April representatives of the private health sector warned about the danger that these funds would be lost. Given this information, Commissioner González evidently did nothing. Furthermore, journalistic reports suggest that the government of Wanda Vázquez notified the commissioner of this situation in July, including by email, and again she did nothing.
After Acevedo Vilá made public the letter from Governor Vázquez warning the congressional leadership of this crisis and calling for action, Jenniffer González was silent for several weeks. Last weekend he said categorically that the funds were not going to be lost and could be rescheduled.
“In an insensitive way and in a clear disregard for people in need, Jenniffer González not only lied about this, but she comes just hours after the deadline to present a last minute amendment, in a single paragraph and improvised to deal with to save face from the obvious negligence and irresponsibility of their performance, ”said Acevedo Vilá.
“Today a newspaper of general circulation informs us that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers these funds, reports that until last night no one from Puerto Rico had notified it about this crisis. These expressions of CMS on the one hand deny what Jenniffer said on Sunday and again show the incompetence of this government, ”he pointed out.
Regarding the argument that González and the executive director of the Fiscal Control Board, Natalie Jaresko that this money has no defined use because said allocation is not recurring as of 2021, the former governor argued that “both officials are wrong, because the government of Puerto Rico had a whole year to identify non-recurring expenses and purchases in the area of health and the Vital Plan that could have been paid for with those funds. If a coherent and truthful action plan had been worked out in advance. Not even that can be done well by this government. “
“If Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González had done her job responsibly, she would have identified, together with the Fiscal Control Board and the Department of Health, those expenses, purchases and services that are not necessarily recurring as of fiscal year 2021 and that could have been paid for with those funds. They could have bought medical equipment, medicines, laboratory tests, covered temporary mental health services, services and treatments against Hepatitis C, the purchase of specialized equipment for children with disabilities, payment of debt cancellation to health providers, outpatient services and even paying deductibles for people in need of services, to mention some examples of expenses in areas in which they could have requested an administrative authorization for certain non-recurring uses. In addition, the resident commissioner was able to use her alleged influence in Washington so that congressmen intervened with the board and obtained approval for the use of these funds, ”added Acevedo Vilá.
“Unfortunately yesterday another step was taken so that what we made known and we have been warning for two weeks is consumed, the loss of one billion dollars of federal funds that are used to provide services to our medically-indigent population and pay them for their services to all healthcare providers. The responsibility of Jenniffer González in this tragedy is evident. The resident commissioner withheld this information from the country. It is not until Tuesday, September 8, that I made public the letter from the Governor to the congressional leadership, that the country found out about this situation, “she said.
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