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.
Pro-Life Ping
Freepmail wagglebee or DirtyHarryY2K to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
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!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.