by Ed Naile
The Helms Affair: (And they say there isn’t enough money in NH for health care).
So you think Ned Helms the “volunteer” on Lynch the Governor’s team was just an ordinary office helper whisked from his position by partisan politics? Think again.
Helms’ bio includes: not only president of the controversial New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice that just received a $100,000.00 no-bid contract from NH taxpayers, he has been; Legislative and Administrative Assistant for Health Policy within the U. S. Senate,* Commissioner of Health for New Hampshire, founder and President of a health policy consulting firm (Helms and Company), and Chief Administrative Officer of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Hampshire. Mr. Helms is co-principal investigator for the Empowering Communities Through Access to Information and Training Project. He has a Master of Science in American Government from the University of New Hampshire.
Mr. Helms is on the payroll at UNH to the tune of $113,600.00 in taxpayer money. His NHIHPP was started with a no-bid contract in1999 using a $350,000.00 grant to UNH from NH Health and Human Services – taxpayer dollars again.
“Volunteer” Helms dips into several other sources of “loose change” in the non-profit health care industry as well.
In 2003 alone his little band of six policy wonks at NHIHPP (located at UNH) was bathed in the glow of $164,696.00 from Endowment for Health to: The Empowering Communities Project and for training communities on community health.
What is Endowment for Health? Why it is a little organization funded by an $80 million dollar “gift” to New Hampshire from the purchase of Blue Cross Blue Shield by Anthem several years ago. The Endowment is run by former State Senator Jim Squires and doled out about $2.9 million to 49 organizations. (the operational expenses to hand out that cash were only $375,000.)
In 2003 UNH picked up $242,258 in total grants from The Endowment.
Our SB2 “friends” at the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies garnered $155,721.
New Hampshire Citizens Alliance picked up $112,500 for their self-stated political efforts are to:
New Hampshire Citizens Alliance (NHCA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan, statewide membership organization with a mission of social, economic and political justice for all…..
Our strategy for 2004 is to work with leaders and key organizations in six targeted areas of the state to conduct intensive voter education efforts among primarily infrequent and unregistered voters. Specifically, we will focus on low-income women, people of color, gays and lesbians, and select populations of youth. Our top priority cities and towns are: Manchester, Exeter and Nashua, with a second tier of priority towns in the North Country (Berlin/Conway), Concord and Keene. We selected these areas because they have a larger concentration of our targeted constituency groups and NHCA has long standing relationships with allies and activists at the local level.
So if you are a taxpayer in NH and have always wondered why the liberals in this state are always funded to the hilt just look to your old “Republican” friend Jim Squires, Democrat activist and Lynch “insider volunteer” Ned Helms, our illustrious Executive Council and their sneaky no-bid contracts, UNH the bottomless money pit, and the state’s major media who are part of the deal through their silence.
Here is a bonus: Guess who appointed the first “board of directors” to the Endowment for Health when it sucked up $80 million in NH Blue Cross contributor’s premiums to feed liberal think-tanks and left wing organizations — The (N.H.) AG’s office! You remember our pals who won’t prosecute voter fraud, right?
Senator Squires! $80 million would buy a lot of kids braces and preventative care visits if it wasn’t spent on redundant liberal policy research.
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Mr. Helms served as an aide to the late U.S. Senator Thomas J. McIntyre (D-NH) and at one time was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the U.S. Congress, NH Dist. 2, at which time he used the memorable slogan: “Give ’em Helms.” Fortunately First District voters thought better of it and elected the Republican.