Health Care

Health-Reform Foe Runs Firm Serving Patients Who Would Benefit From Public Option

Zachary Roth | September 30, 2009, 9:57AM

Rick Scott, Conservatives for Patients Rights

Salon has a lengthy profile of Rick Scott, the head of Conservatives for Patients Rights and the public face of the anti-healthcare-reform movement.

At this point, Scott's track record as a zealous promoter of for-profit health-care -- including the fact that the company he founded paid an almost $2-billion fine for Medicare fraud -- has been well-documented. But Salon compellingly frames the central fact of Scott's role in the current debate over reform:

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Medicare

Are Insurers Exploiting Health Care Debate To Mislead Seniors And Drum Up Business?

Justin Elliott | September 29, 2009, 4:00PM

A mailer being sent by health insurers to seniors, and obtained by TPMmuckraker, seeks to exploit fears about Congressional changes to the health care system to sell supplemental insurance. And it contains false claims about "new" reductions in Medicare benefits imposed by Congress.

Yesterday, 66-year-old Donna Price of Battle Ground, Washington, received this official-looking mailer in a pull-apart envelope from direct mail firm Target Leads (aka TL Service Center).

It announces: "IMPORTANT: NEW MEDICARE CHANGES." And continues:

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AHIP

Who Else Has Been Pressuring Medicare Beneficiaries to Lobby Against Health Reform?

Brian Beutler | September 22, 2009, 5:24PM

Zack asked this question earlier, and we're still waiting for an official answer, but news stories from back in April strongly suggest that Humana wasn't the only insurance company enlisting seniors (legitimately and otherwise) to lobby against changes to Medicare Advantage. In fact, the problem may have been industry-wide.

Here's an April 13 story from the Eagle Tribune in Massachusetts:

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Health Care

Republican Leaders Rush to Defend Insurer Humana from "Gag Order"

Brian Beutler | September 22, 2009, 4:50PM

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

As Zack noted in great detail here, the Obama administration is investigating the activities of health insurance giant Humana--a participant in Medicare Advantage that's been telling its aging consumers that the government plans to slash benefits, and urging them to tell Congress not to touch the program as it reforms the U.S. health care system.

Medicare Advantage plans are private health care plans that seniors can buy into with federal assistance in lieu of participating in traditional Medicare. Under terms the government erected when it created the system, those insurers face strict limits on how they communicate to beneficiaries--regulations that exist to protect seniors from acting under the pressures of insurers, who control their benefits. In response to a request from Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services has demanded the lobbying effort cease, and is investigating the company to determine whether it violated those rules.

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Health Care

Obama Admin. Suggests Other Health Insurers May Be Getting Customers To Lobby Against Reform

Zachary Roth | September 22, 2009, 10:08AM

Is Humana just the tip of the iceberg?

Yesterday we reported on the campaign by health insurer Humana Inc. to enlist beneficiaries to lobby lawmakers against a key cost-saving measure in Sen. Max Baucus's health-reform bill. Humana's letters to its customers, urging them to contact their member of Congress, are currently being probed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which contracts with Humana, among other firms, to provide Medicare Advantage.

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Health Care

Health Insurer Probed For Enlisting Beneficiaries To Fight Reform Proposal

Zachary Roth | September 21, 2009, 12:19PM

Health insurer Humana Inc. portrays itself as a guide through the treacherous waters of health-care coverage. The company's tagline is "Guidance When You Need It Most," and switchboard operators at its Louisville headquarters answer the phone by asking callers: "How can I guide you?"

But is Humana guiding its customers a little too much in enlisting them to oppose a key aspect of health-care reform?

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Barack Obama

Tea Party Group: Obama Is Both Goebbels And Mengele

Zachary Roth | September 4, 2009, 12:58PM

So as you may have heard, the Tea Partiers are set to get back in the news next weekend with a big "March on Washington" to protest health-care reform, the bailout, climate-change legislation, and all those other intolerable encroachments on freedom that the Obama administration is planning.

The Tea Party Patriots -- which, along with the corporate-backed FreedomWorks, is the prime organizer of the march -- have worked hard to portray their movement as a reasonable, principled, non-violent opposition. Among the confirmed speakers for the rally are GOP lawmakers who are leaders of the conservative movement like Jim DeMint, Mike Pence, and Marsha Blackburn.

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