The massive Medicaid fraud scandal in Minnesota – perpetrated primarily by Somali refugees – could never have happened if fears of being called racist didn’t keep responsible oversight at bay. Even big-box media outlets acknowledge this. But it goes beyond that. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and state Medicaid officials specifically sought to utilize the “financial incentives” for health care plans to address “structural racism” and push radical social change.
Dr. Nathan Chomilo has been the Medical Director of Minnesota Medicaid and MinnesotaCare since December 2019. He is also currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota and an Ascend Fellow at the uber-connected globalist think tank, Aspen Institute.
In May 2021, Chomilo was interviewed by the Center for Health Care Strategies, a “policy design and implementation partner devoted to improving outcomes for people enrolled in Medicaid.” Big-money left-wing “philanthropist” groups Arnold Ventures and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are among CHCS’s top funders.
Chomilo bluntly told the organization that Medicaid must be used to combat racism in the United States.
‘Financial Incentives Aligned With Our Efforts Around Institutional Racism’
“The real goal is to be quite clear that addressing structural racism, promoting anti-racism, and capturing and measuring health equity are part of the expectations for any managed care plan who’s serving our enrollees. Our focus on addressing health equity and structural racism must show up in how we pay and award contracts,” Chomilo declared. “If the financial incentives for managed care organizations are not aligned with our efforts around health equity and institutional racism, then we’re going to continue to see gaps persist.”
Chomilo doggedly pursued this agenda at official Equitable Care Task Force meetings run by the Minnesota Department of Health.
“Dr. Chomilo discussed the Minnesota Department of Human Service’s (DHS) efforts to build pathways to equity through Medicaid and his work with the National Academies to drive transformation toward a more equitable health care system. His presentation focused on Medicaid reforms and health care system transformation, emphasizing the need for integrated, community-centered approaches,” the summary of an August 21, 2024, task force meeting reads.
Chomilo was not working alone. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, the official philanthropic arm of the health insurance goliath in the Gopher State, fully shared his view on using the medical finance infrastructure to combat “racism.”
This is the stated goal of the foundation, taken from its 2023 Impact Report:
“Our mission is to build strong community partnerships to advance racial and health equity. We live this mission through our trusted relationships and deep collaboration with community organizations, and our work toward a common goal of addressing the root issues of health inequities, including racism, discrimination, and marginalization of communities.”
Minnesota BCBS Exec: Racism a ‘Public Health Crisis’
Black activist author Bukata Hayes is Chief Community Health Officer for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. “Hayes serves as an advisor and strategic leader across the organization to identify and implement initiatives that bring about improved health engagements and experiences, greater fairness, representation, and lasting systemic health ecosystem changes,” his official BCBS bio reads.
Hayes also serves on the Board of Directors for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of Minnesota. This racial obsessive makes no bones about why he is in these positions.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota regularly produces “sponsored content” for Sahan Journal, a “news” publication expressly devoted to supporting immigrants in Minnesota.
“Founded in August of 2019, Sahan Journal is a nonprofit digital newsroom dedicated to reporting for immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota. Our diverse staff creates exceptional journalism: coverage that truly represents the changing face of Minnesota and recognizes that democratic engagement and power belong to everyone,” the site’s “About” page states.
Sahan Journal donors include the powerful leftist “philanthropic” Ford Foundation and, once again, Arnold Ventures.
In February 2023, the site published a “sponsored content” article penned by Hayes in his role as “Vice President of Racial and Health Equity and Chief Equity Officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.” The title only hinted at the deep racial divisiveness that was to come: “For the Love of Our People – Reflections on Black History.”
“When George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, 2020, the entire globe started asking how we could have allowed something like this to occur,” Hayes exclaimed in the piece. “In the aftermath, mainstream America finally seemed to have started the process of becoming aware of not just personal, but systemic racism, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness that is rife throughout society’s structures and institutions.”
“One could rightly assert that what we saw play out that day, was the result of a whole country ‘hating’ Black existence so much that we stood by and witnessed in real time the outcome of unabated anti-Blackness’ and its inevitable impact on Black people,” the inflammatory jeremiad continued.
Is it really that difficult to see the inherent danger of a vice president at one of the largest health insurers in the nation writing the following statement?
“We see anti-Blackness manifest in every aspect of American life from education to housing to employment to incarceration to healthcare to literature to legislation to leadership to beauty to the innocuous and abstract. Anti-Blackness… White Supremacy… Systemic Racism… all share an all-too-common trait… hatred and contempt for Black existence,” Hayes asserted.
Using the very infrastructure of health care in America to topple this “white supremacy” has long been a key goal for Hayes. “Addressing racism as a public health crisis means we have to do some courageous and bold work,” Bukata is quoted as saying in an anti-racism post at the Mankato Clinic, a health care service created specifically to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
“Blue Cross is making a multi-million-dollar investment to end health disparities in Minnesota. Having lived in Mankato for 30 years, Bukata understands the needs of Greater Minnesota,” the Mankato post reveals.
How was the massive Somali fraud able to flourish for so long? Perhaps this provides a clue:
“Blue Cross is taking a two-prong approach. First, they are seeking community-led solutions and raising the voice of the people and communities experiencing inequities. Second, Blue Cross is addressing the issue from within by looking to Bukata to apply a racial and health equity lens to every aspect of its work and culture. A special focus is being placed on enhancing health plans to address specific needs of BIPOC members and communities more effectively.”
‘Cultural Humility’ Series on Health Care For Somalis
In line with this all-encompassing agenda, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota launched a “Cultural Humility” Series to educate state health practitioners from the “dominant” (i.e., American) culture on how to respect Somali culture, which it acknowledges is far different.
“This burden of educating others about different cultures is a familiar one. All too often, dominant culture expects Black, Indigenous and communities of color to contribute their time and emotional labor to providing this education – over and over again,” A June 2024 Blue Cross “sponsored content” article at Sahan Journal states.
Here’s the climate that allowed Somali fraud to thrive:
“This reality is the motivation behind Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota’s Cultural Humility video series – a series rooted in the belief that cultural competence is a journey, not a destination. It’s a lifelong commitment that can only be advanced through the humbling experience of self-evaluation and self-critique.”
As Liberty Nation News reported in February, current Democrat state Attorney General Keith Ellison traveled to Somalia in 2013 while serving as a US congressman specifically to help facilitate remittance money transfers from Somalis living in Minnesota back to the home country. “Ellison’s office said his trip is being sponsored by the American Refugee Committee, an international nonprofit with a presence in Somalia,” The Minneapolis Star-Tribune noted at the time.
The American Refugee Committee now goes by the name Alight. In 2023, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation awarded a financial grant of an unstated quantity to Alight. In other words, there is a network at play here.
The conclusion is inescapable. Billions of American taxpayer dollars have been squandered in a concerted, deliberate, and powerfully connected effort to use the US health care system as a vehicle to promote radical social change in the name of fighting “racism.”
