Tea Party Patriots

Tea Partiers Get Set For Hectic Final Push Against Health-Care Reform

Zachary Roth | November 2, 2009, 4:07PM

Declaring that "this is our battle of Trenton," Tea Party activists are gearing up for a last stand against the health-care reform effort they see as putting the country on a glide-path to socialism.

With the House set to vote on reform as early as this week, Tea Party Patriot leaders yesterday sent out a lengthy email to volunteers -- forwarded to TPMmuckraker -- announcing "It's Make or Break Time with Health Care," and laying out a frenetic schedule of direct lobbying activities for the next few days, including phone calls and in-person visits to members of both houses of Congress.

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Blue Cross Blue Shield

Health Insurer Lobbying Mailer Came After It Raised Rates

Zachary Roth | October 30, 2009, 12:21PM

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)

Earlier this week, we reported that Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina had recently sent out mailers that urged recipients to lobby Sen. Kay Hagan to oppose a public option, which it called "a slippery slope to single payer." (You can see the mailer here.)

The story was picked up by the Raleigh News & Observer, which added an additional key fact: Just before sending out the mailer, BCBS of North Carolina had informed its customers that their rates would rise by an average of 11 percent next year.

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Evan Bayh

Report: Bayh's Wife Made Millions As Board Member For Health Insurer

Zachary Roth | October 29, 2009, 2:15PM

Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN)

Yesterday, Sen. Evan Bayh joined his colleague Joe Lieberman in suggesting that he may oppose health-care reform, citing concerns about the deficit. Bayh has long been one of the more conservative members of the Democratic caucus. But is his stance also affected by the fact that his wife has reportedly earned at least $2 million over the last six years as a member of the board of a major health insurer?

Susan Bayh's affiliation with Indianapolis-based WellPoint isn't news. But a new report on TheStreet digs into the details. It also finds that last year, Susan Bayh sat on four other corporate boards, in addition to WellPoint's. She received over $656,0000 in cash and stock for all her board work, around half of which came from WellPoint.

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Media

Asa Hutchinson Recorded Robocalls For Anti-Reform Rallies Featuring Fox's Stossel

Zachary Roth | October 26, 2009, 6:25PM

FOX News' John Stossel and Fmr. Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR)

We told you last week that John Stossel of Fox News is participating in rallies against health-care reform organized by a conservative activist group.

But now it looks like Stossel's decision to get involved with the effort ties him in not just with the conservative anti-reform movement, but with the Republican Party itself. That's because former Arkansas GOP congressman Asa Hutchinson has recorded robocalls promoting the upcoming rallies in his state.

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Health Care

NC Health Insurer Asks Voters To Lobby Hagan Against Reform

Zachary Roth | October 26, 2009, 12:47PM

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)

Health insurers are using every tool at their disposal to pressure senators into opposing a public option.

The latest example: Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina has sent a mailer -- obtained by TPMmuckraker -- to voters in the state, warning that a public option will lead to "a single payer system," and urging recipients to send a postcard to Sen. Kay Hagan that asks her to "oppose government-run health insurance."

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John Stossel

Fox's John Stossel To Rally Against Health Care Reform

Zachary Roth | October 23, 2009, 12:58PM

FOX News' John Stossel

John Stossel of Fox News will join a conservative activist group for rallies designed to build opposition to health-care reform.

Americans For Prosperity (AFP) has announced that Stossel, a "renowned health care reporter and analyst," will participate in three "Health Care Town Halls," starting next week in Arkansas.

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Tom Coburn

Coburn, Price Not Rushing To Embrace Award From Doctor Who Sent Racist Obama Pic

Zachary Roth | October 19, 2009, 4:33PM

Dr. David McKalip

David McKalip, the Florida doctor and health-care-reform opponent who apologized this summer after sending a racist picture of President Obama as a witch-doctor, is trying to cozy up to some of the most extreme Republican reform foes in Congress. But even they want little to do with him, it seems.

Yesterday, McKalip sent an email invitation, obtained by TPMmuckraker, announcing that Doctors for Patient Freedom, the anti-reform group he runs, plans to honor Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) for their work in fighting to preserve "the freedom patients deserve" in health care. According to the invitation, the ceremony is set to take place November 7th, in conjunction with the upcoming American Medical Association meeting in Houston.

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David McKalip

Top Health-Care Reform Foe: Racist Emailer Is "Rock Solid Patriot"

Zachary Roth | October 5, 2009, 2:04PM

Greg Scandlen, Heartland Institute

A top conservative health-care reform foe is going to bat for David McKalip, the Florida neurosurgeon and anti-reform activist who this summer was caught by TPMmuckraker sending a racist email that showed President Obama as a witch doctor.

In an email to fellow activists, obtained by TPMmuckraker, Greg Scandlen, the founder and director of Consumers for Health Care Choices, and a senior fellow at the conservative Heartland Institute, called McKalip "one of the best men I know" and "a rock solid patriot." Scandlen also revealed that he himself had urged McKalip to rejoin the fight against reform, after McKalip had temporarily taken a lower profile in the movement in response to widespread outrage over the witch-doctor email.

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Barack Obama

Florida Doc Who Sent Obama Witch-Doctor Email Still Helping Lead Anti-Reform Fight

Zachary Roth | October 5, 2009, 12:21PM

Dr. David McKalip

Florida neurosurgeon David McKalip is back in the thick of the fight to stop health-care reform -- just over two months after pledging to withdraw from the public debate on the issue in the wake of a furor set off when TPMmuckraker published a racist email he sent showing President Obama as a witch doctor.

Over the weekend, McKalip emailed a fellow activist, reporting that he had been at a conservative medical association meeting, with leaders of the anti-reform movement, including GOP congressmen Tom Price and Paul Broun, anti-reform writer and activist Betsy McCaughey, and Tea Party coordinator Amy Kremer. Conservative doctors and their allies have been organizing in recent days in response to the White House's event this morning featuring pro-reform doctors.

McKalip's email was then forwarded on to a Tea Party Patriots email list.

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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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