Wendell Potter: Don't Fall for TV Ads on Medicare From an Insurance Industry Front Group

[marmar]

March 12th, 2013 12:02 PM

Don't Fall for TV Ads on Medicare From an Insurance Industry Front Group
By Wendell Potter


Facing government cuts to one of their cash cows -- private Medicare plans -- health insurance companies have launched a multi-pronged campaign, financed by customer premiums, to persuade Congress to keep the cuts from going into effect next month.

The industry's big PR and lobbying group, America's Health Insurance Plans, is deploying the tactics I described in Deadly Spin to scare seniors into believing that if the federal government stops overpaying insurers that offer Medicare Advantage plans (the private alternative to the traditional government-run Medicare program) seniors will "pay more, get less and lose choices."

"U.S. Health Insurers Launch TV War Over Medicare Advantage Cuts," read the headline of a Reuters story last week when AHIP's ads started running.

At issue is a 2.3 percent cut in payments to Medicare Advantage plans by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that are scheduled to go into effect on April 1. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/dont-fall-tv-ads-medicare-insurance-industry-front-group

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[ananda]

2. God how I hate private insurance companies these days!

Serious hate.