Mark Dansack challenges Mark Wagoner...

This press release just in from the Mark Dansack for 46th District House of Representatives Campaign:

Mark Dansack challenges opponent to stay implementation of the Taft Corruption Bailout Act (Senate Bill 7) until a full investigation into the irregularities at the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation is conducted.

Monclova Township Democrat Mark Dansack, a candidate for the 46th District House of Representatives in Ohio, has issued a challenge to his opponent, Mark Wagoner, to introduce legislation which would stay the implementation of Senate Bill 7 until the full details of all irregularities within the operation of the Bureau are known.

“It’s not bad enough that we have seen the Noe “Coingate” fiasco and the MDL investment losses of over $200 million, but now we are finding out that GOP reforms instituted as a cost-cutting measure in the late 1990’s have actually increased the bureau’s total operating costs at more than twice the rate of inflation - since these reforms were instituted”


As a result, according to figures quoted by both the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Toledo Blade, the BWC has actually spent roughly $1.6 Billion more under the managed-care initiative than it would have had costs been held in check.

“This gross mismanagement of public funds by these self-described fiscal conservatives speaks volumes about what is wrong in Ohio and has been for the past decade and a half. When the scandal erupted, the only proposal from the General Assembly was to place (through Senate Bill 7) more burden on the injured workers that the system was intended to help.”

Dansack continued, “I call on Representative Wagoner to stand up for working men and women in Ohio and put his full effort into delaying implementation of what should be called the Taft Corruption Bailout Act.”

Dansack works as a legal aid for Gallon, Takacs, Boissoneault & Schaffer and deals daily with injured workers, physicians, managed care organizations, and the Bureau of Workers Compensation.

“It is becoming increasingly more difficult to get these injured workers the care that they need and representatives from the GOP are hanging their hats on their cost-saving measures that they have implemented. I challenge Mr. Wagoner to join with me in agreeing that the measure passed in March, 2006 is no longer valid, as it fails to take into account additional information that has been made available illustrating major problems with the administration of the Bureau”.

It is Dansack’s opinion that the remedies proposed in Senate Bill 7 are analogous to an auto mechanic attempting to overhaul a broken down engine by adding a quart of oil and some washer fluid, or a physician attempting to administer a cure for an unspecified disease without first completing a full examination of the patient. “Look, we wouldn’t trust a mechanic or a physician who wouldn’t take the time necessary to figure out what’s wrong, and we shouldn’t trust state government with this corruption bailout plan which clearly attempts to balance the Bureau’s budget on the backs of the very injured workers it is supposed to protect”.

According to the Toledo Blade, in the mid-1990s, bureau officials said the new managed-care program would lead to savings of 15 percent to 30 percent of the bureau's medical costs and provide better services to injured workers. Instead, the costs have steadily risen, and managed-care firms made hundreds of millions off the agency. “In another occurrence of the frequent buck-passing we have seen at the state level, Mark Rickel, Governor Taft’s press secretary, squarely placed the blame on James Conrad, who resigned in 2005 as the scandal broke. I ask Mr. Rickel the following questions: Who appointed Mr. Conrad and why is Governor Taft so unwilling to accept any responsibility for any of his decisions?”

“My view is that we ought to scrap the entire language of Senate Bill 7, as it clearly is deficient in terms of even coming close to solving the colossal problems we’ve seen at the BWC in Ohio. Let’s let the new Governor and new legislature work on an initiative for a fair and equitable solution to reforming the system to a system that adequately protects injured workers, while also ensuring that proper oversight is undertaken to make sure that the waste of public funds is eliminated. The injured workers in Ohio and businesses who pay premiums into the system deserve nothing less.”

Dansack, 44, is married to Heather, and they are the parents of two young daughters, Caitlin and Sophia. Prior to joining Gallon, Takacs, Boissoneault & Schaffer in 2003, Dansack worked in manufacturing with General Mills, Inc. in Toledo. Dansack holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, both earned at the University of Toledo.

More information about Mr. Dansack’s campaign can be obtained at dansackdistrict46.blogspot.com