State Auditor candidate Suzanne Bump said yesterday one of her first orders of business, if elected, will be to streamline the state’s health-care system.
Bump, a Democrat, thinks transitioning from MassHealth to the Medical Security Program and Medicaid as the result of a job loss or other circumstance is too confusing.
“These agencies do not communicate with each other, making it as difficult as you can possibly imagine,” said Bump, 54. “The onus should not be on the consumer to figure it out.”
Bump, one of three Democrats vying for the chance to be the party’s nominee this fall, sat down yesterday, a little over a month before the Sept. 14 primary, for an interview with Sun editors and a reporter.
Bump, a 1978 graduate of Suffolk Law School, was an elected state representative from Braintree from 1985 to 1993. After losing her re-election bid, she helped her son start a law practice, focusing on small businesses and nonprofit agencies.
Most recently, Bump served as Gov. Deval Patrick’s secretary of Labor and Workforce Development from 2007 to 2009.
Bump is competing against Worcester County Sheriff Guy Glodis and political newcomer Mike Lake.
With outgoing Auditor Joe DeNucci set to retire after 24 years, Bump said her experience inside and outside state government gives her the perspective and know-how to make a difference on Beacon Hill.
“In order to have an auditor serve as a catalyst for change, you need your auditor to have integrity,” Bump said. “To achieve reform, you need to have some political skill.”
Bump said her role as auditor, if elected, will be to look for more efficient ways for government agencies to operate and spend money. Although state agencies must be audited every two years, Bump said the department can focus on a particular agency based on tips from constituents, requests from the Legislature or media reports.
“What I want to build upon is to not just do financial audits but thorough performance audits,” Bump said. “There are so many tools available to us to determine if an agency could be run better.”
Bump said she will scrutinize tax credits and other tax incentives offered to Massachusetts businesses to ensure that they are providing the benefits they were originally designed to provide. Bump plans to first examine economic development tax incentives, which are estimated to cost the state $1.7 billion in fiscal 2011.
Bump grew up in Whitman, where her father was a funeral director and her mother a homemaker. She commuted to Boston College and lived for more than 20 years in Braintree with her husband, Paul McDevitt, of Dorchester. They now reside in the Berkshires town of Great Barrington but spend the workweek in South Boston.
“If you told me a year ago I would be doing this, I would have told you were crazy,” Bump said. “But I have a passion to make government work.”
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