SAIPAN – Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo made a one-day trip to Saipan on Friday while his lieutenant governor vetoed a contentious health insurance bill.

Acting governor Ray Tenorio vetoed Bill No. 513 after labeling it “another election-year empty promise to people wrought with severe legal, factual, financial and actuarial deficiencies in its assumptions and analysis.”

The legislation would have allowed GovGuam employees to choose from more than one provider.

Calvo recused himself from evaluating the bill due to his family’s business – Calvo SelectCare Insurance – being the current health insurance provider for GovGuam’s 11,000 employees.

Several NMI and Guam politicos noted Saipan was a convenient day-trip to provide political cover for Calvo while Tenorio took the ax to the insurance bill so close to election day.

Strangely, Calvo’s Saipan trip was cited in GovGuam’s press release but Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. administration did everything possible to keep the visit under wraps.

CHC’s chief executive officer, Juan N. Babauta, Calvo and Guam Memorial Hospital’s medical director, Dr. Larry Lizama, were already meeting when Variety arrived after lunch.

Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos’ vehicle and Fitial’s driver as well as DPS Police Capt. Jermaine Nekaifes were very visible at the hospital’s administration entrance.

For the next three hours, as the group met and toured the hospital, a cat-and-mouse game with Variety ensued.

CHC security personnel circled Variety as did Nekaifes and in the end Calvo and Lizama slipped out of the hospital around at 5:30 p.m. without being seen except by a few hospital staff.

In a telephone interview with Variety two weeks ago, Sen. Frank F. Blas, Jr., a candidate for Guam Delegate, confirmed cooperation talks between CHC and GMH were stepped up during the last five months.

He described the discussions as building a framework for more extensive future cooperation between the facilities to identify “fiscal savings and sharing resources in areas such as medical referrals.”

Blas recounted how CHC came to the aid of GMH a few years ago and “we want to try and do the same ... CHC is collapsing and GMH must try and help.”

Messages to Babauta from Variety went unanswered as did requests for comment from the Fitial administration.