Shorraw alleges corruption in health insurance contract
By KRISTIE LINDEN
klinden@yourmvi.com
In a state-of-the-city address Tuesday, Monessen Mayor Matt Shorraw indicated that one of his accomplishments over the past year was uncovering corruption in local government.
Councilman Tony Orzechowski asked for an example.
Shorraw has often pointed to corruption as one of the reasons he didn’t attend council for almost the entire first two years of his term, but hasn’t explained publicly what that corruption is.
Shorraw told Orzechowski he’s discussed it several times over the past year, but he wasn’t paying attention. Orzechowski again asked for an example and Shorraw pointed to the former health insurance contract.
Shorraw and councilmen Don Gregor and Gil Coles believe the contract with Benecon-Pennsylvania Municipal Health Insurance Cooperative is an example of misuse of city funds because it cost too much, in part because an error was discovered showing 25 retirees who should have been on Medicare were given full coverage instead.
“When you mis-spend money or don’t plan things out well, that’s corruption,” Shorraw said.
Orzechowski countered that it’s not corruption, it’s just Shorraw’s opinion.
Gregor said the cost of paying for full coverage instead of paying for gap insurance, which covered whatever Medicare didn’t, was $400 extra for each person every month, adding up to an extra $120,000 per year.
“There is either something going on or you didn’t have a clue what you were doing,” Gregor said.
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