"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,".... Teresa DeCaro, an agency official, sent the notice to all companies that sell private Medicare coverage and stand-alone drug plans to seniors. The warning came as President Barack Obama's health care legislation is moving toward key tests in a Senate committee over the next several days, and with public polls showing widespread skepticism among seniors " LA Times LA Times - Humana
Since when can the Department of Health and Human Services tell a private company what they can and cannot say? Isn't the statement blatantly stifling: Translation - "As we research this issue (ie debate) we want you to shut up with your opposing point of view and if you don't comply you face possible federal legal action." Please read the link.
quote: In a warning letter to Humana, HHS said the government is concerned that the mailer "is misleading and confusing" partly because the company's lobbying campaign could be mistaken for an official communication about Medicare benefits.
From your own article. LOL You DO know what it actually SAYS, don't you?
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote: WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration warned insurance companies Monday they face possible legal action for allegedly trying to scare seniors with misleading information about the potential for lost benefits under health care legislation in Congress.
posted
I'm not sure about the law here. Obviously, the Humana people are lying scumbags looking to scare old people with lies and misrepresentation (and apparently, the GOP wants to get behind that), but is what they are doing actually illegal? What laws are they breaking?
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Laws that protect against false advertising, maybe? HHS restricts what companies can say all the time, within an advertising context at least. If the purpose of the mailers was to try to get people to buy into their plan, I think it would fall under those laws and not laws for political speech.
quote:"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"
I don't think 'this issue' referred to the health care debate, but rather to the issue of these companies publishing misleading material.
Posts: 1676 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by MrSquicky: I'm not sure about the law here. Obviously, the Humana people are lying scumbags looking to scare old people with lies and misrepresentation (and apparently, the GOP wants to get behind that), but is what they are doing actually illegal? What laws are they breaking?
"The head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, told senators that seniors in Medicare's managed care plans could see reduced benefits under a bill in the Finance Committee." CBS News
They better put a gag order on the head of the Non-Partisan Congressional Budget Office for scaring old people in the middle of this important debate.
posted
Maybe the next generation will believe. I bet these kids think a half a billion cut in spending will result in an increase in benefits. I think it's time to home school. Their version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic is quite amusing.
posted
As providers of Medicare benefits they may be technically acting as agents of the state. If that's the case then the state has the authority to regulate their communications with their customers.
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
They provide private Medicare supplement plans. That's exactly what scares me. Where will speech lie when the government provides 100% of the health care coverage? I know what a government system is like, you have no say and they have no liability. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32068066/ I spent 12 years in that system. My civilian doctor found plenty wrong with me after I was discharged - things I complained about for years. I walked around for three weeks with a molar cracked down through the root because it wasn't an emergency.
You are right about government services voiding what would normally be basic right, and it terrifies me. When you receive benefits from the government you forfeit your rights. At least on the level of threatening to take away your benefits for failure to comply. IE highway funds, education funds, etc. States concede their rights when they accept federal dollars and so will people.
quote:Originally posted by malanthrop: That's exactly what scares me. Where will speech lie when the government provides 100% of the health care coverage?
It's baffling. Really, it's totally baffling, how you could go through your whole life observing the actions of the US government both at home and abroad, under any administration you can name, actively suppressing the individual rights of thousands of people for political and strategic gains, and you choose health care as the government program that is finally going to turn us into a neo-nazi/Communist jackbooted thug regime the likes of which the world has never experienced? Really?? Health Care?
quote: I walked around for three weeks with a molar cracked down through the root because it wasn't an emergency.
You have steadfastly failed to acknowledge this time and again on this forum, but you are by now certainly aware that under our current "system" thousands of people walk around with, and eventually die of cancers they know about, and which are treatable, not because they are not emergency cases, but because they cannot afford treatment. I defy you to claim this does not happen. Your molar. I weep for you.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
"It's baffling. Really, it's totally baffling, how you could go through your whole life observing the actions of the US government both at home and abroad, under any administration you can name, actively suppressing the individual rights of thousands of people for political and strategic gains, and you choose health care as the government program that is finally going to turn us into a neo-nazi/Communist jackbooted thug regime the likes of which the world has never experienced? Really?? Health Care?"
Those who were born with the fear-mongering gene can't just turn it off, Orincoro. Show some compassion for them. LOL
I meant that about half-seriously.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
According to my wife's civilian coverage, it was an emergency. According to the government system it was not. The Airman who went in for gall bladder surgery and woke up without legs can't sue the government doctor. And dental cleanings in the UK are considered cosmetic by the universal system and not covered. I work with a Brit contractor that had to wait to come to the US to get his wisdom teeth removed....he couldn't find a dentist in the UK who would do it.
My mother had an early diagnosis of breast cancer last week and this week she's having a mastectomy. Doubt the turnaround is near that in your socialized systems. In fact the death rate for prostate and breast cancer is much higher in the UK.
quote:Originally posted by malanthrop: My mother had an early diagnosis of breast cancer last week and this week she's having a mastectomy. Doubt the turnaround is near that in your socialized systems. In fact the death rate for prostate and breast cancer is much higher in the UK.
I expect you to cite your source for that information.
And as we all have pointed out to you many, many, many times before, this is not an issue to be judged according to anecdotals. Why? Because any health care system, I repeat, any health care system will have horror stories. Anyone here can cite you personal stories about the horrors of whatever system they live under. That is not the point- the point is an to find a way to get an overall improvement in the standards of care, and to get more quality care, for more people, for less money, than we currently do. You never respond to this, you always change the subject or just start obfuscating, but the US continues to pay more per capita for health care, and to attain lower quality outcomes on the average, and this is despite possessing the most advanced medical technologies in the world. Why is that? Please, do share your theory on why that is, and moreover, why it should stay that way.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think a big part of the problem is that Americans eat the worst diet (and are the most sedentary) of almost any country, on average. I think probably that we'll simply have to wait on advances in medical technology to make diet and exercise irrelevant, before we'll see much change in the average health of Americans. People lack willpower, motivation, and knowledge, and that doesn't change overnight, or even in 5 or 10 years, for a large population. For every person like myself, who makes health and nutrition a lifelong study and practice, there are thousands of average Americans, eating every scrap of junk food and overcooked meat they can fit in their mouths, and posting on 4chan or playing on facebook all day, or watching tv, etc. and never bothering to even go for a walk. Good luck with all that. You people will need it. LOL
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
And given that the US is the only developed nation without a national health program, that chart should be used to compare to many other countries than just the UK.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
