H-1B Obamacare Illinois Bombshell

[OhioChick]

Billions of dollars of IT contracts are wrapped inside the implementation of Obamacare, with federal tax dollars paying up to 90 percent of the cost for upgrading state Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS). These awards are some of the largest in state history.

Two weeks ago, Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn became national news for circumventing a three-year procurement process on up to $190 million in no-bid IT contracts. Last week, we found that one of the largest bid-contract awards outsources state jobs to H-1B contractors from India. This story led the nightly news covering the state capitol.

The Democratic governor awards $71.4 million contract to an outsourcing firm billing up to $256,160 per year per position -- plus $200,000 taxpayer financed "slush fund" for travel.

A $71.4 million IT contract was awarded to Cognizant Technology Solutions, which ranks in the top seven for procuring H-1B visa workers. As soon as the Illinois contract was signed, evidence shows the company has applied for more than 100 H-1B visas with the United States Department of Labor and Training Administration and is recruiting staff from India for the Illinois work.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-andrzejewski/h1b-obamacare-illinois-bombshell_b_3936877.html

H-1B workers in line for Obamacare work

IT requirements of the Affordable Care Act are being met under state contracts that allow, in their silence, the use of temporary visa workers

September 25, 2013 06:14 AM ET

Some state governments are willing to hire offshore IT service providers to work on healthcare IT projects under controversial contracts that don't bar use of temporary foreign labor, or workers on H-1B visas.

Two multimillion-dollar government healthcare IT projects, one in Illinois and the other in the District of Columbia, illustrate what's going on.

In Illinois, Cognizant was awarded a $74.1 million contract in June to upgrade the state's Medicaid systems to meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare.

In January, the District of Columbia awarded Infosys a $49.5 million contract to develop a health benefit exchange and replace its Medicaid and eligibility systems.

More: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9242648/H_1B_workers_in_line_for_Obamacare_work

Snip~ "The hiring of temporary visa workers "isn't due to a shortage of U.S. IT workers, but instead for the simple fact that those H-1B workers can be paid less than the market wage," said Hira."

[truedelphi]

1. Great find. Thank you for posting this.

However, could you explain what this statement means:

The Democratic governor awards $71.4 million contract to an outsourcing firm billing up to $256,160 per year per position --

Does that mean for every position where someone is hired, the firm gets some 256,000 dollars?

[Yo_Mama]

2. Yes, it does. n/t

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. No. Key phrase is "up to."

[jsr]

4. Recommend

[KoKo]

5. This is just so wrong. Wonder if something can be done to

change this?

[truedelphi]

6. Only by our re-formatting one or both paties so that they somewhat resemble what they

Once were, will crap like this not occur.

In 2008, during the run up to selection of a cadidate for Presidency, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supported the H1b visa process.

As du'er Zalatix once pointed out, on The H1B issue: Yes, American workers, YOU DO QUALIFY FOR THAT JOB.
(snip)

Firstly, I will kick this off with that which would usually be put off to the end as a conclusion: the only thing that disqualifies Americans for jobs that H1B visa holders are getting, is Americans won't work for peanuts.

Second of all, I'm going to address the core half-truth that was used to support the argument that "No, you don't qualify for that job":

According to the US Census bureau, in 2009, out of the entire population of the United States - the educational levels are as follows:

17.6% of the population holds a bachelors degree.
7.2% holds a masters degree.
1.9% hold a professional degree.
1.2% hold a doctorate degree.

[davidwparker]

17. +1

If we could only get back to Eisenhower-style Republican policy, it would STILL be to the left of Obama.

Yes, reform one of them and after reading this, I really don't care which of the two it is. Both are logos now (elephant, donkey) which basically support the same interests.

I didn't support Hillary the first time around because I believed Obama when he was talking about employing Americans and didn't believe Hillary would do anything about outsourcing (read: Bill/NAFTA).

[ChromeFoundry]

7. I can guess where Patrick Quinn's portfolio is invested...

fucker.

[Snake Plissken]

8. Now we know why Wall St is tell the GOP Freakshow to back down

of course they're fucking us from both ends, that's what they do.

[DeSwiss]

9. Quelle Surprise?

- K&R

[AnotherMcIntosh]

10. Will this cause more loyalty to the Democratic Party? To get re-elected in Illinois, how worse are

the Republican candidates going to have to be?

[Thor_MN]

11. In my experience, you need to hire 2 H-1B contract workers for each position.

Half the time they are at one of their desks, figuring out what that job needs done, the other half of the time they are working on the other job. Everything proceeds at half pace and none of it works without being redone by a regular employee.

[antigop]

12. K&r nt

[sabrina 1]

13. Unbelievable!

But then again, it really isn't.

Thanks for the thread OhioChick.

[momrois]

14. Did anyone read the responses on the computerworld article?

It's loony tune t bag country! wow

[frylock]

16. reads more like righteously pissed off american software developers to me

[momrois]

21. You didn't read far enough

I that's what you saw, you didn't read far enough. It degenerated into Birther nonsense.

[frylock]

22. that i did not see..

there were several posts that had been removed, however.

[JDPriestly]

15. Hire Americans First!

That is the slogan we should hear until no one would think of doing anything else!

If we outsource IT jobs, American students will not prepare for IT careers, and our country will fall seriously behind when it comes to technology.

This is not just about where the wages go or how much is paid. This is about the future of the US in terms of competing with other countries in technological fields, in engineering fields.

We have to stop the H1-B visas. Companies should train Americans before hiring people from other countries. I know lots of people who have not yet found jobs or who are underemployed -- working at a fast food restaurant with a college degree. They can be trained to do a lot of this work. Companies and especially our government need to invest in America and invest in Americans.

[AzDar]

18. K & R

[Fumesucker]

19. K&R

[IronLionZion]

20. Here's a great article for the federal site:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/06/healthcaregov-code-developed-by-the-people-and-for-the-people-released-back-to-the-people/277295/

Techies would enjoy reading this one