Newly released records of visits to the Obama White House by health care executives provide some important new details not included in the White Houses July 22 letter sent to CREW on the eve of the Presidents health care press conference. The records identify the names of the individuals the visitors were meeting with, and include information about scheduled appointments that apparently never took place. The new records include information from WAVES records, which show the scheduled dates of appointments, as well as ACR records, which show when the visitor actually entered the White House complex. Details from the new records are outlined below.
Bill Tauzin (President and CEO, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America):
March 5 (meeting with president)
May 19 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
June 24 (meeting with Clare Gallagher)
July 7 (meeting with Jim Messina)
Karen Ignagni (President and CEO, Americas Health Insurance Plans):
March 5 (meeting with president)
March 6 (meetings with Elizabeth Bafford and Larry Summers)
March 11 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
June 30 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
Richard Umdenstock (President and CEO, American Hospital Assn.):
February 4 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
February 23 (meeting with president)
March 5 (meeting with president)
March 25 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
March 30 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)
April 6 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
May 22 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
J. James Rohack (President-elect, American Medical Assn.):
March 25 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)
June 22 (meeting with president)
June 24 (meetings with Clare Gallagher and president)
William Weldon (Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson):
May 12 (meeting with president)
Jeffrey B. Kindler (Chairman and CEO, Pfizer Inc.):
March 5 (meeting with president)
May 6 (meetings with Sarah Fenn and Elizabeth Bafford)
June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
Stephen J. Hemsley (President, CEO, Director, UnitedHealth Group, Inc.):
May 15 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
May 22 (meeting with Peter Orszag)
July 14 (meeting with Aneesh Chopra)
Angela Braly (President, CEO, Director, WellPoint, Inc.):
February 13 (meeting with president)
George Halvorson (Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan):
March 27 (meeting with Keith Fontenot)
June 5 (meeting with Peter Orszag)
July 23 (meeting with Kathleen Sibelius)
July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
Jay Gellert (President and CEO, Health Net, Inc.):
February 10 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
March 11 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
March 20 (meeting with Matt Flavin)
July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
Thomas Priselac (President and CEO, Cedars-Sinai Health System):
April 3 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)
Richard Clark (Chairman, President and CEO, Merck):
March 24 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)
Wayne T. Smith (Chairman, President and CEO, Community Health Systems):
June 4 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
Rick Smith (Sr. Vice President, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America):
May 19 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
July 7 (meeting with Jim Messina)
July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
http://www.citizensforethics.org/files/20090904%20-%20Summary%20of%20Health%20Care%20Visits.pdfThe plan was hammered out a while ago. August was the month of distraction, getting everyone in a tizzy, obama comes out in Sept and plays good cop with an eloquent speech, as long as you're willing to settle for anything with hefty dose of hope for future "incremental changes". What emerges will be what was decided at the white house among the real players in the list above. No public option or something called a public option that will die a quick death and the real reason for all this staged drama- mandates and another massive transfer of wealth to the top in the form of subsidies which in reality are additional taxpayer funded extortion payments added to co-pays, deductibles and premiums.
All this to keep an unneeded, wasteful and bloated middleman that adds nothing of value to health care.
The system is still class based with the shitty care if any at all offered to the working poor. At best 17 million left uninsured. Tens of thousands of people will die for lack of access to healthcare paying the highest price of all so the comfy middle class and above can keep their private employee and individual ins. plans.
Except we have a new name for folks unable to pay the mandated high costs for the privileged of supporting massive and wasteful overhead and excessive profit- Deadbeats.
The idea that government will regulate insurance companies because they pass a law would be laughable if it the idea wasn't so ignorant of how it really works in washington and our regulatory agencies. How many more consumer agencies are we going to need to inadequately defend the working class from the abuse ins. companies will heap on them because the regulators and those in charge of bringing the abusers to justice are health ins. lobbyists with deep pockets.
The middle of the road corporate controlled democrats brought us such neoliberal policies as Nafta, Deregulation and welfare reform. And now the decimated working class and working poor are supposed to continue to suffer further both financially and physically and many will pay with their lives so that the comfy middle class can get a premium rate cut and a bit of faux reform.
And for the folks who just can't afford to hold up a corrupt system that benefits the wealthier in our society we have a special name for you. In keeping with the neoliberal motto of "blame the victim" you will now be relegated to the fringes of society where the parasites dwell as the true leaches you are- Insurance Deadbeats
I think if we are going to ration death we should do it fairly and spread the consequences of half assed bullshit reform among those who advocate for it. A national lottery to pick the folks this bill will leave behind. If you have already spent a good portion of your lives uninsured you don't have to put your name in you paid your dues to society and your wealthier counterparts.
As with the draft it won't be until the comfortable and well off experience the horror those of us at the bottom have for the last 30 years that things will change.