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Posted on 01/25/2006 6:08:36 AM PST by Gopher Broke
Stop the $22 billion special interest giveaway!
Dear Friend,
Republicans are nothing if not consistent in putting their special-interest friends first.
Today, the Washington Post revealed a back-room deal by Republicans to preserve a loophole in Medicare payment policies that allows insurance companies to receive excess payments from Medicare – to the tune of $22 billion.
You read that correctly.
The Senate tried to act to save Medicare $26 billion in payments to insurance companies. But, in the Republican-controlled conference committee – where both Democrats and the public were shut out – lobbyists for the insurance companies successfully eliminated all but $4 billion of the savings.
Even a prominent Republican health care lobbyist, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, “I have worked many [budget] bills, and this was the most closed I've ever seen.”
Once again, Republicans and their campaign contributors win, and the American people lose.
I am not going to stand for it.
Just because Republicans have the audacity to hand over $22 billion in Medicare payments to their lobbyist friends while cutting Medicaid for children and seniors – that doesn't mean we have to take it.
Rep. John Dingell of Michigan and I will introduce legislation to close, once-and-for-all, the loophole allowing insurance companies to bilk Medicare. We will use the savings to restore funding to children's health care and Medicaid slashed by Republicans.
I know how fundamental this issue is to New Yorkers and to Americans everywhere. In fact, before the Washington Post story broke, I had hoped to write you with one simple update today: the first day that I asked you to your share your health care stories with me, over 1,000 of you responded.
That's no fluke. It shows how many Americans are suffering as they have to make terrible choices. Bills they can't pay, insurance they can't afford, pain they can't get treated. It's simply wrong, and I'm going to make sure that all Americans and their representatives know just how wrong it is.
If you haven't shared your health care story with me yet – about how it is impacting you and your family – please do so today. Many of your stories will be posted on HillaryClinton.com, and others will be shared at roundtable discussions going forward.
Please use this link to send your story:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/healthcarestories/
We are united in our determination to stop George Bush from doing with health care what he tried to do with Social Security. We will find real solutions for Americans – not more Republican corporate giveaways under the guise of helping people.
This is a national crisis and a moral failing. And, together, we will turn it around. Please stay tuned for our next steps as we chart a better course to provide health care for all Americans. In the meantime, please send me your health care story by using this link.
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/healthcarestories/
Thanks for your friendship and for all you do.
Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton
P.S. To read the Washington Post article on the secret GOP sessions with insurance lobbyists, use this link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012301700.html
Hey Hitlery, you stupid B*tch, how about getting your pal Teddy the Swimmer to give back the 22 BILLION - That's right, I said BILLION, wasted on the THE BIG (leaky) DIG in Boston! What a scam!
Look into a mirror and point when you say that, Senator. There is your problem.
Teddy = The big dig pig
Special interest? Your hubby traded blowjobs for interviews at Revlon and the United Nations.
Appears the American people aren't buying her load of BS.....
http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2006/01/51-say-no-to-prez-hill.html
How sweet..
And how about giving back the unused $2 billion in federal 911 funds now proposed for a Manhattan-to-Kennedy rail link???
http://www.qgazette.com/news/2005/1123/Front_page/
Well, it all started with this severe itching in the rectal area...
Try reading her email while imagining Hillary's flat, nasal, droning voice actually saying the words - your head will explode before the third sentence.
I join you in prayer for our country.
Oh man, thanks for an early laugh. That really tickled me. You need to submit that to her, with some elaboration.
So quit beatin' up the insurance companies, Clinton.
"Republicans are nothing if not consistent in putting their special-interest friends first. "
You are voting against a highly qualified judge nominated for the USSC, why? Because you put your special-interest friends first. Talk about pot calling the kettle black.
She's so full of bovine excrement:
WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she and a House Democrat plan to introduce a bill to counter what she called a secret, "corrupt" Republican move to transfer Medicare funds to insurance companies.
The New York Democrat and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan denounced a reported attempt by House and Senate Republicans to save the insurance industry more than $22 billion over 10 years.
Clinton called the deal "an example of the culture of corruption in passing legislation in the dead of night."
The deal, Clinton and Dingell said, was reached in a closed-door House-Senate conference on a budget bill last month. A Senate bill would have lowered reimbursements, which are really overpayments by Medicare private health maintenance organizations, by $26 billion.
The overpayments result from HMOs billing Medicare the highest possible price allowed for a medical service, a process known as upcoding.
Clinton explained that HMOs have been allowed to bill Medicare for treating kidney failure, for example, when a patient actually has less expensive diabetes.
Clinton and Dingell said that in the conference, which excluded the Democrats, Republican conferees yielded to pressure from the insurance industry. The Congressional Budget Office said the conference reduced projected payouts by only $4 billion.
"This Republican effort to protect a ($22 billion) windfall for insurance companies came as Republicans in Congress drastically cut Medicaid benefits and took away medically necessary care for children and seniors to offset their budget," Clinton said in a conference call with Dingell.
"I just came back from a trip to pharmacies in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse," Clinton said, "and I can tell you that this money ought to go to reimburse pharmacies and reimburse the states" for problems in dealing with the new Medicare prescription program.
The conference bill will come up for final passage in the House next Wednesday. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who took part in the closed-door conference, said he also opposed "giveaways" to the insurance industry, but he called the budget office's estimates "ridiculous."
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060125/1058567.asp
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