Only the Nazis had snappier uniforms...
Posted on 09/25/2009 4:14:01 PM PDT by wagglebee
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Obama administration has aroused a fierce First Amendment controversy after threatening companies selling private Medicare coverage not to tell their customers that current health care legislation would result in benefit cuts - or else face a lawsuit.
The administration and Senate Democrats justify the move by saying the claim, spread by at least one such company, is patently false. Yet some say the administration is the one twisting the facts to help the unpopular legislation: critics note that even the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office agrees that the legislation would mean a loss of senior benefits.
The general warning came after the Department of Health and Human Services launched a probe against the insurance giant Humana earlier this month after it sent out a mailing warning of the possible cuts.
"As we continue our research into this issue, we are instructing you to immediately discontinue all such mailings to beneficiaries and to remove any related materials directed to Medicare enrollees from your Web sites," the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid told health insurance companies in a notice Monday.
The bill currently under construction in the Senate Finance Committee includes a proposal to cut Medicare and Medicaid spending by about $500 billion over the next decade, including about $125 billion cut from Medicare Advantage plans.
The Humana mailer had told its members that, "if the proposed funding cut levels [in the current health care legislation] become law, millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable." The company encouraged seniors to contact their congressional representatives on the issue.
The AP reports that the government, in addition to launching an investigation, ordered Humana to cease distributing the mailer and indicated that further action could be taken against the company. According to a company spokesman, Humana is cooperating with the investigation and stopped the mailer earlier this month.
Democratic Sen. Max Baucus sparked the probe after he complained that the mailer was misleading. He insists that the cuts will not amount to a loss of benefits for seniors, but will in fact improve Medicare by making it more efficient.
"I'm not going to let insurance company profits stand in the way of improving Medicare for seniors," said Baucus in a statement.
The Obama administration similarly denies that the large proposed Medicare cuts will reduce seniors' benefits.
An email distributed to White House subscribers today referred to an "ongoing effort by many in Washington to scare America's seniors with myths about what reform would mean for their health care benefits," saying that this is "a bunch of malarkey." The email encouraged readers to contact elderly friends and family to ensure that they "get the facts."
However, the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget office says the claim Democrats call misleading is, in fact, accurate.
Douglas Elmendorf confirmed to members of the Senate on Tuesday that the proposed cuts for Medicare's managed care plans in the Finance Committee bill would mean fewer benefits for seniors in the plan.
Despite the White House's vigorous attempts to dispel anxiety over the health care overhaul, seniors in public polls continue to display broad skepticism of the legislation set to undergo crucial construction in the next several days. America's Health Insurance Plans spokesman Robert Zirkelbach pointed out in a FOX News report that the Obama administration's order was sent out to about 200 companies Monday night, just before the Senate Finance Committee commenced debate on the latest version of the health overhaul.
"This is an effort to stifle any dissent," said Zirkelbach.
Capitol Hill Republicans have pushed back against the Humana probe, calling it a politically-motivated "gag order" and an "astonishing overreach" of the administration's power. On Thursday, Senate Republicans threatened to block Obama's health care-related appointments until the decision is reversed, while House Republicans called for a hearing on the matter.
In a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Senate Republicans pointed out that a 1997 directive from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services explicitly allowed HMOs to tell members about legislation and urge them to express opinions.
"Now, the Obama administration has reversed this longstanding HHS decision -- in the midst of a critical debate about the future of health care services in our country -- to shut down communication between private companies and America's seniors on an issue that has a direct impact on their health care," said the Senators.
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How dare you inform people of what the government is doing. What the government does is now a secret and nobody is allowed to talk about it and death to those who criticize the policies of the furher!
So much for transparency
Only the Nazis had snappier uniforms...
Did we all call HHS and tell them to cease and desist from stifling free speech? 1-202-205-5445
And the white house? 1-202-456-1414
Give em hell every day, every issue.
We will not let them bully us any more. They work for us. We surround them!
Reminds me of what Chavez is doing, stifing the media.
Why not, Americans have done nothing about any other abuses from the left so why should they stop now?
Fascist tyrants care not one hoot what the law says, what the US Constitution says or what the sheep think, care or feel.
Tyrants know only one thing, POWER!
The list, ping
Just give this facist two more years in office and he will be throwing people in jail for no reason. Just like his idols Chavez, Hitler, and Stalin did.
WE WILL NOT HAVE A COUNTRY LEFT IN 2012 IF THE RATS DON’T WAKE UP!!!!
The commie ‘RATS say that they like “transparency” but not THAT MUCH “transparency”. Gotta keep the seniors in the dark, don’t ya know.
bump
I never in my wildest dreams ever thought our country would come to this.
Prosecute who for what?
Dear BO,
It is YOU who are lying and our refusal to back your lie is NOT a prosecutable offense!
But, overplay your hand if you wish, and we will see who prevails in court of public opinion!
Thugs and bullies must be stood up to. They cannot shut America up. There are many ways to get the truth out and they don’t have enough power or people to shut all of us up.
I had friends that died in SE Asia fighting the communists. Now they are taking over our country with a president who isn’t even a citizen of our country. And no one, I mean no one is doing any thing to stop them.
My grand children will grow up as slaves in a land different then what I did.
I am ashamed of my fellow Americans.
Thanks. Calling Monday.
ping
Jeff, I meant to ping you to this and forgot.
“White House Threatens to Prosecute Private Medicare Companies for
Warning Seniors of Cuts”
These peckerwoods in D.C. should be strapped to chairs, have their
eyes duct-taped open...and watch/listen to a loop of Martin Luther King saying
“Let Freedom Ring!!!!....”
Well, as long as possible so they don’t suffer eye damage.
I can’t believe how the “liberal” party has so quickly morphed into
the party of oppression.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
(excerpt from The American Rhetoric website)
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
bump
Aggghhh!!
I can’t imagine ANY other First “Lady” getting caught looking like that....EVER!!!
As a 52 year old woman...I’m disgusted at the lack of respect shown to her position and feel it is a slap in the face to all Americans.
Bump, and thanks.
Ping.
As a red blooded , been around the block a few times, American male ,that’s also an ugly dog.
You need glasses, that is clearly a moose. /s
You know, every time I read or hear King’s “I Have a Dream” speech I come away thinking that it is one of the purest and most patriotic and conservative speeches ever.
She had her game face on that day. The real Michelle Obama. You can put lipstick....
I hear you, I am really down about this. They defy all law and any sense of decency.
I wonder what we are all waiting for?
People are in shock, it is the way they take over. They do so much so fast that it overwhelms people, then it is too late.
It may already be too late. Very depressing. Seems like nothing or nobody is going to stop them.
And yet AARP can pay for advertising railing against Americans for opposing the One’s healthcare plan without their members approval and not get castigated. By the way you can ask for your membership to AARP to be cancelled and ask for a partial refund of your dues and they will comply.
I don’t need to buy a vowel to spell I-M-P-E-A-C-H-M-E-N-T.
This may brighten your day somewhat, a fellow freeper posted it to me today.
“If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” - Thomas Jefferson
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots.” - Thomas Jefferson
Thanks. Keep sending that on, I will too.
Here is one I post all the time.
“A people unwilling to use extreme violent force to preserve or obtain their liberty deserves the tyrants that rule them.” Thomas Jefferson.
“When people fear the government you have tyranny, when the govewrnment fears the people you have liberty.” Thomas Jefferson
I say LIBERTY!
If the companies are clearly telling the truth then case closed. If the companies are stating a “might be” then seems like they should say so. If the companies are obviously distorting the proposed legislation then I don’t know.
Has an organization ever been sued for making an assertion that opposes something our government wants to do?
Seems like if the government can sue a private company over a political issue then a company ought to be able to sue the government in like manner.
Something stinks here or there’s something I don’t understand. Or are the lawyers and politicians creating a smokescreen where the smoke is being presented as the truth that we are unable to comprehend.
Poor dog, not only he it being called ugly but it must also put up with “The Long Legged Mack Daddy the Zebra.
bttt
these rat bastards should be removed from office.
This is just pure censorship. And f....ing unconstitutional.
White House Threatens to Prosecute Private Medicare Companies for Warning Seniors of Cuts
~~~
For telling the TRUTH??!?!?!?!
Thanks for the ping.
 |
No problem. "The Obama administration has threatened us with lawsuits if we tell you that you might lose benefits under their new health care proposals". That would galvanize people more than the thing they weren't supposed to tell them, plus they get told that anyway.
Right on Dragoo.
It is of course the work of Health Commissar, NANCY-ANN MIN DEPARLE, to enforce the party line.
Working behind the scenes to wreak havoc on administration underlings who would otherwise let Humana exercise its 1st amendment right, the Health Commissar issues unreported edicts to cabinet secretaries, legal advisors, and assorted subordinates.
The message is always the same, "This is the party line. It will be expedited without question."
The unconfirmed Commissar, of course, cannot be summoned to testify and is protected by executive privilege, a license to extort.
yitbos
It’s getting more and more like Nazi Germany every day.
***
Prosecute ... FOR WHAT ??? Telling the TRUTH ???
In the immortal words of General Mcauliffe at the Battle of the Bulge ... “NUTS !!!” ...
This title is very disturbing to say the least.
This is probably getting more play than if the letters just went out and most got tossed in the trash without reading them..... doesn’t excuse the administration, but shows how incompetent they are and how they keep losing control over their own message.
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