Humana Pulls GOP Leadership's Strings

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/020108.php

HUMANA PULLS GOP LEADERSHIP'S STRINGS.... During yesterday's Senate Finance Committee debate on health care reform, a frustrated Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) noted that the private insurance industry is "running certain people" in the Senate.

It's demonstrably true. Consider this week's controversy surrounding Humana, one of the nation's leading private insurers. The company opposes policymakers finding cost savings though reducing unnecessary spending in Medicare Advantage -- it would undermine their profits -- so it began lobbying its customers with misleading propaganda. Because Humana receives a whole lot of public funds, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services instructed Humana to stop its taxpayer-subsidized misinformation campaign.

Republicans threw a fit on Tuesday, and ratcheted things up late yesterday.

The rhetorical war over an alleged attempt by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the Obama administration to "muzzle" insurance companies critical of their health care plan intensified Thursday, with Republicans accusing Democrats of violating federal guidelines and threatening to filibuster a host of executive branch nominations. <...>

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, top Senate Republicans demanded that HHS immediately lift the "gag order" and warned that they would filibuster any HHS nominees until she does so.

According to Roll Call, the administration has five pending HHS nominees awaiting Senate approval, and five more vacancies awaiting nominations. The entire Senate Republican leadership team wants to block any and all consideration of these nominees until Humana is allowed to start using tax dollars to mislead seniors again.

"This is pretty simple," a senior Democratic Senate aide said. "All the GOP spinning in the world can't hide the fact that Republicans continue to protect big insurance companies who mislead seniors. This latest attempt is bizarre and untrue pushback -- CMS has always said providers can communicate with their beneficiaries as long as it's done in an accurate and truthful way. The letter from Humana clearly wasn't -- it was both false and misleading. CMS did the right thing protecting seniors from these scare tactics."

GOP lawmakers generally avoid acting like they've been bought and paid for, which makes this week's tantrum in support of Humana propaganda so foolish. We're talking about an insurer, which has seen its annual profits soar nine-fold this decade, and which recently had to settle fraud and racketeering cases. McConnell & Co. are going to the wall to fight for its ability to engage in publicly-funded lying?

As of last night, the Obama administration said it's ignoring the Republican leadership's demands. Here's hoping officials stick to their guns on this.

-Steve Benen

[napi21]

1. Well, I'm a senior & I have Humana a advantage plan. I've

NOT been milead nor have I received any letter...unless I threw it out without reading it! I don't read much of their propaganda crap that they send all the damn time. Don't just assume that all seniors are so stupid that they believe this crap they're promoting!

[MNDemNY]

2. I don't think anyone made that assumption.

[napi21]

4. Well, if you listen to cable news, you'd THINK all this ins.

propaganda was working. How many polls have we head where Obama's HC plan was losing the seniors & THEY are the most reliable voting group of all. I call BS on this. The ins. co's are trying everything they can think of the bury this bill, but I don't think it's going to work this time!

[MNDemNY]

5. You are, obviously smarter than most.

Think about how stupid the average person is.....now think about the fact the half are stupider than that. Scary.

[babylonsister]

6. Then you're probably not aware of this...

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/scaremongering-works-large-number-of-elderly-dems-dont-support-reform/

Scaremongering Works? Large Number Of Elderly Dems Don’t Support Reform


Gallup has a new poll out showing what we already knew: Seniors are leaning against health care reform at a greater rate than other voters, perhaps because they already enjoy Medicare.

But I asked Gallup to send over some additional data breaking down seniors by party, and strikingly, the reform proposal is not supported by a surprisingly high amount of elderly Democrats.

Driving those numbers is the fact that large numbers of elderly Dems have reached no opinion on the reform plan, suggesting that all the scaremongering about how reform will destroy Medicare could be working by sowing confusion.

The numbers: Fourteen percent of Dems and Dem leaners over 65 oppose reform, and 29 percent are unsure, adding up to a total of 44% who don’t back reform, significantly higher than any other age group. Meanwhile, the 57% of elderly Dems who do back reform is significantly lower than any other group.

Oh, one other interesting number. The total of Republicans over 65 who back reform: Only seven percent.

[napi21]

7. MAybe that 29% who are unsure are waiting for a final bill

to see just what it says! One thing (IMO) that age and experience teaches you is not to just to conclusions to quickly. I don't doubt there's confusion out there in all age groups. The media has been spouting every idea possible might be in those bills. I watched ALL the markup metings of the HEALTH connittee. Some of the Pub ideas were goood ones and were adopted in that committee's bill. I haven't had a chance to watch the finance committee's markup meetings yet. To be honest, there seems to be far more squabbling going on than actual debate and adoption or rejection of ideas. /from the few clips I've seen, it's going to be a real effort on my part to sit through them...but I will. I do this because I want to know for myself what really was discussed and accepted or rejected. I don't trust the media at all.

[babylonsister]

3. Wow, this wasn't posted for you to take it personally.

I'm happy you're happy, but it doesn't mean Humana as a whole are working in their clients' best interests.

[SPedigrees]

8. napi never claimed to be happy with Predatora/Humana.

He/she simply stated he/she is not stupid enough to believe this insurance co's BS.