A cautionary tale about privitization of state services

[lucas80]

The article is long, and I assume 50 percent of you won't read it because it comes from Mother Jones. Hopefully you give it a shot. It's a story about Texas move to use private companies to provide foster care, and one disastrous result. Hard to pull too much causation, but it's a good debate of what should the state provide? Especially since Iowa is struggling with how to provide mental health care, and who should run it's medicare program. Personally I think the state shouldn't abdicate it's duties to a for profit company when it come to it's most vulnerable citizens. They have no voice in our system. They have advocates, but they themselves have no voice. And, they don't vote. Should a state or any other government look for technological savings and efficiencies? Absolutely. But, I am highly skeptical of for profit companies and their commitment to the people they serve.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/privatized-foster-care-mentor

 

[thewop]

Great question. There's certainly a happy medium between government control of everything and government control of nothing. I lived in the UK several years ago when students in the UK were protesting outside of Parliament because their University Tuition was going up. At the same time Greece had been protesting on and off for months because their economy could no longer support all the social programs that so many of them had grown dependent on. I would hate to think these things would become a problem in the US, though if we aren't careful, they could.

I would not have voted for Obamacare in its current form, though few would have argued that no health care reform was necessary. We can argue all day about what should and shouldn't be included, and who should and shouldn't get it, but I do like the way it allows those who qualify to use private insurance companies, and the government's role in it is to give a tax credit. So you don't get some generic "Government" insurance, you get "Blue Cross Blue Shield" coverage, and the government helps you pay for it through a tax credit. My employees while I worked in the UK loathed their healthcare system, particularly the public "Free" one (there is a parallel system for those who can afford it), and they avoided going to the Dr. at all costs, because they would say "they won't help me" and "I'll have to wait 3-4 hours to get nothing".

I would not want our system to go the directions described above, and at this point, from what I can see, it has not yet, but certainly as more social programs are introduced, we need to draw the line somewhere.

 

[KitingHigh]

That's a very sad thing. I have two nephews and a niece who were foster kids and are now adopted by my sister in law. My heart goes out to kids in those situations in the article.

That being said, the article doesn't really make a compelling case for or against privatization as it doesn't adress or even acknowledge the problems in state run foster services at all. Without a comparison there is nothing to go on.

 

[eightno2002]

This is one of the areas where government needs have oversight. Profit should be of no consideration when caring for youth. A line midway through the article sums it up: "What happens," Zullo says, "is the lives of these children become commodities."

 

[StormHawk42]

I'm pretty much skeptical of most institutions that start with the for-profit moniker. Honestly never heard of private foster parent companies. That's just insane. Kinda puts in perspective my hatred of for-profit education and for-profit prisons. That point still stands, but private foster parent companies outranks those.

 

[joelbc1]

"Private enterprise" has its place in America today, no doubt. If there is "profit" to be made, private enterprise will find the way to make it profitable. However, there are certain aspects of life which are necessary but NOT profitable. Human Services is one of these areas. It takes money to run them and there are safeguards in place to protect "we the people" from fraud. "Privatizing" human services adds needless administrative costs to the process and in the end will harm many more than it benefits. Iowa, led by Mr. Republican Terry Branstad is venturing into this abyss with its MedicAid program beginning July 1st. It's a clusterf^ck waiting to happen. The new "adminstrators" have already promised millions of $$$ in savings (these savings will be added to their fee as bonuses). However, the clients being served by Iowa MedicAid (approximately 560k) will be less served.....but they will be "less served" by Branstad and his GOP allies.
It is important to remember that once the private sector gets involved in public service, figures don't lie but liars figure. In this case, the most defenseless of Iowans will not be able to counter efficiently.

 

[dandh]

That's a very sad thing. I have two nephews and a niece who were foster kids and are now adopted by my sister in law. My heart goes out to kids in those situations in the article.

That being said, the article doesn't really make a compelling case for or against privatization as it doesn't adress or even acknowledge the problems in state run foster services at all. Without a comparison there is nothing to go on.

You nailed it, KitingHigh. I also noticed that the person who decided the kid belonged in foster care in the first place was a state employee. It's pretty obvious that leaving the kid with her real parents would have been a much better choice.

Last week, there was a story here in the Twin Cites about an 8-year old kid driving a car on the metro interstate system with two younger siblings in the car. They were running away from a foster parent. Concerned drivers who noticed the car's erratic path notified the police. The decision about those kids' placement was made by a public sector employee (counties do that here in MN), and the same county made the decision that those people would be good foster parents.

The ugly truth about foster care is that it's really pretty much a for-profit thing, even if you have public sector agencies placing the kids. The big profit piece is for the foster parents themselves. While some foster care providers are altruistic and doing it for the right reasons, there are many families that have done nothing more for income than raise foster kids. I also know a few social workers (public sector) here who say the whole system is broken, and question whether we wouldn't be better off to return to orphanages instead of foster care.

I don't know the answer, but I don't think that implying that the problem with foster care is private sector placement agencies is going to help much. Child protection and foster care is a huge mess, imo, and it needs substantial reform.

 

[joelbc1]

You nailed it, KitingHigh. I also noticed that the person who decided the kid belonged in foster care in the first place was a state employee. It's pretty obvious that leaving the kid with her real parents would have been a much better choice.

Last week, there was a story here in the Twin Cites about an 8-year old kid driving a car on the metro interstate system with two younger siblings in the car. They were running away from a foster parent. Concerned drivers who noticed the car's erratic path notified the police. The decision about those kids' placement was made by a public sector employee (counties do that here in MN), and the same county made the decision that those people would be good foster parents.

The ugly truth about foster care is that it's really pretty much a for-profit thing, even if you have public sector agencies placing the kids. The big profit piece is for the foster parents themselves. While some foster care providers are altruistic and doing it for the right reasons, there are many families that have done nothing more for income than raise foster kids. I also know a few social workers (public sector) here who say the whole system is broken, and question whether we wouldn't be better off to return to orphanages instead of foster care.

I don't know the answer, but I don't think that implying that the problem with foster care is private sector placement agencies is going to help much. Child protection and foster care is a huge mess, imo, and it needs substantial reform.

With all due respect dandh...I believe you are taking the exception and making it the rule. You have no proof. I understand there are abuses. However, there are laws on the books to deal with these abuses. You don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

 

[dandh]

With all due respect dandh...I believe you are taking the exception and making it the rule. You have no proof. I understand there are abuses. However, there are laws on the books to deal with these abuses. You don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

There was another case here where they did throw an eighteen month old baby out with the bath water. She drowned because the government employee approved foster parent decided she could take a bath all by herself and left her alone in the tub for several minutes. There's all kinds of proof out there, but people just ignore it so they can feel good about things.

The child protection and foster care systems are a mess. Kids will continue to suffer as long as people continue to ignore the problem.

 

[KitingHigh]

With all due respect dandh...I believe you are taking the exception and making it the rule. You have no proof. I understand there are abuses. However, there are laws on the books to deal with these abuses. You don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

How is what he posted any different than the article linked in the OP? There are obviously, to anyone looking, major issues with foster care in both the public and private sector. The article linked only addressed on side of that while ignoring the other. I'm sure a journalist could find a number of success stories if he wanted. I know of three personally here in Florida where apparently all foster services are privatized. These are kids that I know and love who are now in a great environment where they have been officially adopted. With the money saved through privatization they are also entitled to a free college education.

 

[joelbc1]

How is what he posted any different than the article linked in the OP? There are obviously, to anyone looking, major issues with foster care in both the public and private sector. The article linked only addressed on side of that while ignoring the other. I'm sure a journalist could find a number of success stories if he wanted. I know of three personally here in Florida where apparently all foster services are privatized. These are kids that I know and love who are now in a great environment where they have been officially adopted. With the money saved through privatization they are also entitled to a free college education.

Success stories don't make the news. Finding fault within established systems is much more compelling reading. By and large, the foster parent system works pretty well. "Anti-government" types are big on finding fault with human services, MediCare/MedicAid and Social Security programs. Because, as we have all been told, "the government" is incapable of running anything.