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stomping out fear mongering.
i like it.
Well, the Obama administration, true in their authoritarian beliefs, put a halt on the first amendment again:
Insurers Criticize Administration 'Gag Order'
stomping out fear mongering.
i like it.
I wouldn't necessarily list the Obama administration as any more authoritarian than the previous one.
I do agree that this oversteps their boundaries though, assuming that the health care companies aren't being fraudulent by lying or something similar in their claims.
They aren't being fraudulent though. Programs like Medicare Advantage (I think that is the name) will be destroyed from the Health Care proposals.
I'd be interested to know whether Humana, as a Medicare Advantage provider, limited itself contractually beforehand.
If it didn't, there's something to the prior restraint argument; if it did, the furore is artificial.
Like I said, if they're listing just the facts, and they seem to be, I'm ok with it, even if it's in a 'fear mongering' tone.
So you agree this administration is guilty of issuing an uncons utional gag order?
Even if the information is erroneous, it violates the fist amendment, right?
Perhaps. Can you prove it?
Sen. Baucus says he wants to trim the fat, critics say he's cutting the benefits:
Humana is balls deep in this 1997 addition to Medicare:In Medicare Advantage, the government pays private insurers like Humana to manage beneficiaries' care. The plans offer additional benefits to ordinary Medicare, and on average cost the government 14% more per beneficiary than the regular program, according to the Journal.
Baucus's recently unveiled health-care reform plan would save money by cutting payments to Advantage by $123 billion over 10 years. Democrats deny that this would threaten important benefits or services
.Humana is one of the largest private carriers serving seniors under a program called Medicare Advantage. About one-fourth of the elderly and disabled people covered under Medicare participate in the Advantage program, which offers a choice of private plans that usually deliver added benefits.
Humana has about 1.4 million Medicare Advantage enrollees, and the program accounts for about half the company's revenue, Noland said.
There isn't proof one way or the other that the plan would/would not cut benefits from the Advantage plan so for either side to make claims is fraudulent.
Did they not do this to the car dealers from Obama's car companies he owns?
Baucus Bludgeons Humana
Political intimidation has always been part of the current Congress's health-care strategy: "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu" is tattooed on every lobbyist and industry rep in Washington. But Max Baucus's latest bullying tactics are hard to believe by even these standards, as the Senate Finance Chairman has sicced federal regulators on the insurer Humana Inc. for daring to criticize one part of his health bill.
Earlier this month, Humana sent a one-page letter to its customers enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans, which offer private options to Medicare beneficiaries. Humana noted that, because of spending cuts proposed by Democrats, "millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable." The Kentucky-based company also urged its customers to contact their Representatives. Pretty tame stuff, as these things go.
Mr. Baucus took it as a declaration of war. He complained to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal health-care agency, which on Friday duly ordered Humana to cease and desist. CMS claimed the mailer was "misleading and confusing" and told the company it has opened an official probe as to whether the mailer violated laws about how the insurers that manage Advantage plans are allowed to communicate with their customers, as well as other federal statutes.
"Please be advised that we take this matter very seriously and, based upon the findings our investigation, will pursue compliance and enforcement actions," CMS concluded, ominously. Humana could be fined or booted from Medicare Advantage altogether.
"It is wholly inappropriate for insurance companies to mislead seniors regarding any subject—particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health-care reform," Mr. Baucus said in a statement yesterday, playing the role of Congressional censor. "The health-care reform bill we released last week strengthens Medicare and does not cut benefits covered under the Medicare program—and seniors need to know that."
In fact, the Baucus draft legislation slashes $123 billion over the next decade from Medicare Advantage, which Democrats hate despite the fact that almost one-fourth of beneficiaries have chosen it over traditional fee-for-service Medicare. One reason seniors like it is because private insurers focus on quality and preventive care and try to manage benefits, as opposed to simply paying bills.
A new study from America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group, finds that seniors on Advantage in California spent 30% fewer days in hospitals over fee-for-service patients, based on federal data. Democrats say that insurers are "overpaid," but the cuts—as Humana correctly noted—mean that seniors may lose this coverage.
Mr. Baucus doesn't want seniors to be educated about these facts, and obviously he's willing to use his enormous power to punish any private company that doesn't affirm his, well, creative version of reality. Nearly half of Humana's yearly revenue comes from Medicare Advantage, and the insurer says that it is complying in full with the CMS investigation. Yesterday, the agency also barred all Advantage insurers from providing similar information to their beneficiaries.
This episode neatly shows how all U.S. health care will operate if Mr. Baucus's bill becomes law. For months Humana and the wider insurance lobby have been among ObamaCare's most prominent cheerleaders, with the exception of Advantage cuts and the public option—even though they'll be converted into government contractors in the business of fulfilling whatever Congress happens to dictate. The insurers are willing to give up their remaining business autonomy because Democrats intend to mandate that all consumers buy their products—but as with Advantage now, that means government will control the funds upon which the insurers' survival depends. They'll have no choice but to genuflect, or else the political class will pull out the tire irons.
Humana merely made the mistake of trying to tell seniors the truth about what will happen to their coverage, and now CEO Michael McCallister had better hire a good team of lawyers. Mr. Baucus and the Obama Administration are out to make him an object lesson to the rest of the business class, and that means they won't stop until Humana cries uncle or is ruined."
It's a bit above my station, and something for courts to ultimately decide, but if what they're saying isn't fraudulent then I don't think the gag order is cons utional, no.
If the information is erroneous, then there might be issues. It might be considered a form of fraud if insurers are pushing known lies to their customers.
It would seem to.
OTOH, there's not much that's commendable about a company sending out misleading or erroneous information to its own clients to protect it's own pecuniary interest. Humana is selling the government -- and perhaps its own clients -- down the river to protect it's right to charge the government 14% more than it pays elsewhere within Medicare, for equivalent services.
Humana is not some ingenue on the train tracks here.
Probably true. The controversy is pure logomachy, unless Humana limited itself contractually.
The government can order insurance companies in what they say/don't say regarding health insurance. My wife sold health insurance for 3 years. The language allowed in representing insurance is very clear in that regard.
If Humana is making an unproven claim (true or not)...by law...they (representatives of thier company making that claim) could loose their license.
On the other hand...it is skeptical that the feds are interveining at the same time this bill is trying to be passed because I've seen questionable material allowed in the past to be distributed without much concern.
So private insurers are scaring seniors about their federal government insurance because those private insurers want to keep receiving the same amount of money from the federal government.
You obviously hate the free market.
Yep. And board conservatives now seem to be in favor of scaring seniors --even erroneously -- to preserve Humana's right to overcharge Medicare.
If only the government had some kind of email address that I could report "false information" to...............
And meglomanica liberals seem to be in favor of stomping on peoples civil rights and wiping their asses on the cons ution,but at least no body is scared......except, well me and few other millions.
What a pussy micca is.
He scares easily.
Yeh well like I said me along with millions of other pussies.
Yep, you are all indeed pussies.
Thanks for admitting it.
I'm not in favor of every health proposal in the works, but some good will probably come out of this process.
Throw us a bone Chimp not all of us grew up in the badlands of suburban texas.
Wow now that's a shocker.
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