The parts of my conversation having to do with the background checks of the 1,400 “navigators” and the 1,500 CoveredCA.com employees are disquieting to say the least. As is the imprecision with regards to the availability of benefits to the undocumented population who are dependents of documented. Conversely, the fact that CovredCA.com is running every social security number through the federal database may be deterring sign-ups of people with family members in the country illegally, even though Mr. Howard assured the audience that no immigration enforcement takes place via CoveredCA.com despite the fact that the social security check is done via a federal bureaucracy which, presumably, is obliged to cooperate with ICE. (There’s a story there as to which federal agency is or isn’t cooperating with which other federal agency in the age of Obama.)

The structure of the agency is also bizarre. 1,500 full time employees, but another 1,400 enrollment counselors working for independent contractors. Everyone gets fingerprinted according to Mr. Howard, but he would not say who reviews the “background checks” that come back from the Department of Justice. Only serious conviction disqualifies you, not arrests, and not, by the way, non-payment of child support. Evidently California has to hire deadbeat dads to do the jobs that child-support paying dads won’t do. Our exchange on security/background checks led me to conclude that they are going through the motions not doing serious background investigations, and the inevitability of compromise of the system is high.

Mostly though I (and people listening) were surprised to learn that CoveredCA.com is paying a bounty for enrollees.