WASHINGTON — As President Bush’s health chief, Tommy Thompson trumpeted millions of taxpayer dollars to help workers sickened by the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center, even amid complaints that his agency wasn’t doing enough.
Now, Thompson’s private company has won an $11 million contract to treat some of those same responders — the latest twist in a fitful government effort to determine how many people were made ill by the toxic debris — and to care for them.
The contract awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is aimed at tracking the health of between 4,000 and 6,000 workers who live outside the New York City area, where a separate health- monitoring program is in place. The CDC is part of the Health and Human Services Department, which Thompson headed in Bush’s first term.
Internal e-mails show that the one-year contract went to Logistics Health Inc., a La Crosse, Wis.-based company where Thompson is president.
While secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, Thompson was pressed by New York lawmakers to take a more active and aggressive role in tracking and treating Sept. 11-related health problems.
“It is ironic that former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson’s firm won the contract to provide the services, given the history of delay from the Bush administration when he was secretary and now,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. “But I am glad these heroes are finally getting the help they deserve.”
The government has struggled to effectively track the health issues of ground-zero workers who live outside New York. In the years since the 2001 attacks, studies show workers who toiled at the site have had higher-than-normal rates of lung problems and post-traumatic stress. Others have complained of an increase in gastrointestinal disorders.
The CDC contract was awarded after the government received proposals from four companies, including Thompson’s, officials said.
Estimates on how much treatment these workers need — and how much it will cost — vary widely.
