I’ve noted with some fascination the outrageous rhetoric Tom Coburn has used in his Senate campaign in Oklahoma. I’ve even speculated that his tendency for vitriolic language may ultimately ruin his campaign.
It turns out, however, that Coburn has a far bigger problem to deal with.
According to records obtained by Salon, Coburn filed an apparently fraudulent Medicaid claim in 1990, which he admitted in his own testimony in a civil malpractice suit brought against him 14 years ago by a former female patient. The suit alleged that Coburn had sterilized her without her consent. It eventually was dismissed after the plaintiff failed to appear for the trial.
In his sworn testimony, Coburn admitted he sterilized the then 20-year-old woman without securing her written consent as required by law. He blamed the omission on a clerical error, but maintained that he had her oral consent for the procedure. (Salon has been unable to contact the woman and is withholding her name out of respect for her privacy.) Coburn also revealed under oath that he had charged the procedure to Medicaid — despite knowing that Medicaid, also known as Title 19, does not cover the cost of sterilization for anyone under age 21.
At this point, I haven’t seen this revelation reported anywhere else, but it’s a story with the potential to do even more damage to Coburn’s already controversial campaign. The Coburn camp has not yet formulated a response.
Salon could not reach Coburn for comment. His campaign manager, Michael Schwartz, said that he was not familiar with the case and that it was “way off the radar screen” because the case happened 12 years ago.
Sorry, that won’t cut it. Medicaid fraud involving sterilization of a minor can’t be dismissed as “way off the radar screen.” It’s a real story that deserves a real explanation.