Health Management Associates scandal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Health Management Associates (HMA) Scandal refers to the sale of tainted blood from HMA (an American company) to Canadian blood banks.
HMA was contracted by the state of Arkansas to provide health care to prisoners in the state of Arkansas in the early to mid 1980s. This arrangement allowed HMA to collect blood from the prisoners. The blood, some of it proven to be infected with HIV and hepatitis C, was found in the Canadian blood supply. It was not found in American supplies because of a ban on prisoner blood use.
The president of HMA at that time was Leonard Dunn, a close friend of Bill Clinton and Vincent Foster.[1] He chaired Clinton's re-election campaign and was appointed by Clinton to the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission.
In 1993, a Canadian Commons Committee released a request for a public inquiry into HMA's actions in the 1980s. Foster committed suicide two months later, on July 20, 1993. Conspiracy theorists have tried to link his death to HMA and the Whitewater Scandal to prove he was murdered.
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[edit] The Krever Report
Justice Horace Krever led a public inquiry in 1993 which uncovered the Arkansas prison blood scheme, as he reported in 1997.The primary purpose of the report was to work on ways of improving the Canadian blood system to avoid similar problems in the future. Also, the report makes mention of similar problems with prisoner blood collection practices in Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, as well as concerns about blood in general from San Francisco.[2]
[edit] Bill Clinton
Because he later became President, there have been many attempts to link Clinton to the HMA scandal. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton signed the contract with HMA for prisoner's healthcare, but there is no concrete evidence to implicate Clinton in any wrongdoing in the HMA scandal.
Clinton is not implicated in the Krever Report, as some news articles and websites claim. As mentioned above, the report was written to find ways to improve the Canadian blood supply, not find criminal fault in any person or group.[2]
The Governor's records are often mentioned with the claim that they hold secrets about Clinton's association with HMA. The Governor's records were taken by Clinton as personal property when he left office and have not been made public. It is only speculation that they contain anything related to HMA.
[edit] See also
- Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada
- Tainted blood scandal
- Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal
- Contaminated haemophilia blood products
