Lamborn Town Hall
CSaction, along with a coalition of many healthcare reform groups like HealthCare for ALL Colorado, PeakDems, AARP, SEIU, UFCW, African American Voice, Coloradans for Peace, and independent reform advocates, attended representative Lamborn ’s Thursday healthcare town hall on August 27, 2009
Representative Lamborn had just sent out an estimated 70,000 mailers “prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense” that were full of LIES and disinformation about the healthcare reform bills. It’s only estimated to be 70,000 because, when asked about the total number mailed, LAMEborn’s Communications Director Catherine Mortensen, “I have the figures, but I don’t have the authority to give that to you.”
Actually they don’t have the authority to withhold that information because it’s public record, given that this pack of LIES was “prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense.”
The mailer says “114 million could lose their current health care coverage under the bill”.
This is a LIE!
This absurd figure comes from “The Impact of the House Health Reform Legislation Coverage and Provider Incomes,” by the Lewin Group.
The Lewin Group is a “research” and management consulting (lobbyist) firm owned entirely by the second largest health insurer in the nation, UnitedHealth Group.
Furthermore, the “research” does NOT say 114 million LOOSING healthcare but CHANGING insurers. The 114 million was a figure the Lewin Group published in June, which they revised DOWN to 88.1 million in July, so it’s not even their most current LIE.
The Congressional Budget Office completely refutes that, saying that enrollment in the House Democrats’ proposed public plan would total 10 to 12 million people.
The Lewin Group is part of Ingenix, a wholly-owned UnitedHealth subsidiary that was accused by the New York attorney general and the American Medical Association of helping insurers shift medical expenses to consumers by distributing skewed data. Ingenix supplied UnitedHealth and other insurers with data that allegedly understated the “reasonable and customary” doctor fees that insurers use to determine how much they will reimburse consumers for out-of-network care.
In January, UnitedHealth agreed to a $350 million settlement with the AMA, and a $50 million settlement with the New York attorney general, covering conduct going back as far as 1994, when they were distributing skewed information to fight President Clinton’s healthcare reforms.
Next LIE in this mailer:
“4.7 million jobs that could be lost as a result of tax hikes on small businesses”.
This absurd figure comes from an op-ed piece written by House minority leader John Boehner, who admitted to distributing bribes from Big Tobacco on the floor of the House. He says got the figures according to the methodology developed by Christina Romer, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. She NEVER said such a thing, and he obviously he doesn’t understand her methodology.
What did she really say?
“The current healthcare system does not work well for small businesses.”
“They pay about 18% more for comparable coverage than a big firm, and that puts them at a competitive disadvantage.”
“Healthcare reform is ABSOLUTELY aimed at easing those burdens.”
“The plan has a tax credit for small businesses.”
Watch her entire statement here.
Lewin Group Vice President John Sheils admits 114 million would NOT lose their employer-sponsored coverage AND they wouldn’t be forced into a government-run health plan. Rather, they would be able to choose between the public option and other private options, through the exchange, and “they might very well be better off,” he said.
But not all of the firm’s corrupt reports see the light of day. For example, a study for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association was never released, Sheils said.
“Let’s just say, sometimes studies come out that don’t show exactly what the client wants to see. And in those instances, they have [the] option to bury the study — to not release it, rather,” Sheils said.
http://csaction.org/TPs/TP_LAMEborn.html
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00028133
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/22/AR2009072203696.html
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lewin_Group
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/News.asp?FormMode=release&ID=923
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/media_center/2009/feb/feb18a_09.html
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ingenix
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20090115/REG/301159956
http://www.healthcareforallcolorado.org/
http://www.barackobama.com/
http://www.aarp.org/
http://www.seiu.org/
http://www.ufcw7.com
http://www.coloradansforpeace.org/
http://www.theafricanamericanvoice.com/
Duration : 0:5:56
Its situational …
Its situational application of the law, we pay for bogus insurance – Corporate crooks get rich, Progressive utilizes dumb caricature to sell worthless insurance policies. There is nothing funny about death and mangled bodies. Progressive is nothing more than a Ponzi Scheme in which Corporate Executives such as Glen Renwick get rich and leave injured policy holders bogus insurance policies which are not worth the paper they are written on. See Progressive Insurance Has Treated Me as Roadkill
Since right wingers …
Since right wingers get everything wrong, shouldn’t we call them wrongwingers?
Funny how people …
Funny how people ONLY see rationing in the UK and don’t see it in the current system we have that kills 18,000 a year denying care.
Funny how people see costs skyrocketing BUT think that controlling those costs with reform is a bad idea.
And if you want to look at history for intent, then you neocons are trying to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public schools, police, fire, libraries, post office and roads… and make a world for the rich only.
Don’t believe …
Don’t believe anything Obama says about health care now! Believe what he said over the years. “I favor a single payer system ” . . . “It won’t happen immediately, but I could see a transition of maybe ten or fifteen years”. He will do anything to get the thin end of the wedge into the current system, and then push it further in incrementally, so people won’t notice. Just look at the reports from the UK and Canada. They are RATIONING. Costs are spiraling out of control.
“if drugs dealers …
“if drugs dealers ran it”
That’s part of the problem that reforms are designed to fix: the drug dealers DO run the system.
Medicare’s overhead is 3%, private insurance overhead is 30%, so who can’t run things efficiently?
Depends of IF you know the facts or not.
In your case….NOT.
They are happy, …
They are happy, well adjuted people, not carrying guns, threatening people, intimidating people, and trying to suppress discussion.
You mistake that for not taken themselves seriously?
Don’t underestimate how serious they are.
these people …
these people parading around chanting for healthcare don’t even take themselves seriously…they are all on the verge of laughing.
All the Govt does, …
All the Govt does, is waste! if govt gets their hands in it, there will be more corruption, if drugs dealers ran it! Like the lady said, “Name ONE thing the govt has ran efficient!”
NOTHING!!!
WE ALL pay for ALL …
WE ALL pay for ALL healthcare now. The money doesn’t come from Mars. We ALL have ALL the burden already. What we don’t have is any say in the system which abuses us every day. We need to do this for US, all together and for OUR benefit, not the profit of those that don’t care. WE are the government in a Democracy:
“We, the people”.
We need to control OUR money and OUR health.
So I have to pay …
So I have to pay for others how selfish is that, try to do things for your self instead of expecting the government and everyone else to do it for you
They could always …
They could always do the right thing simply because it is the right thing for them to do. They should represent their people. When 3 out of 4 people want this one would have to agree that even most republicans want it.. unless of course the party has gotten that small. Why do they have to tell lies in order to oppose? Like the death panels thing and the illegal aliens crap and all the rest of it.. Why not oppose it based on things that are true instead?
Well, I won’t argue …
Well, I won’t argue with you about why they lost the election, but they have been “inactive” because Democrats have a stranglehold on the government (filibuster proof vote!) so anything the Republicans would try to “do” would get shot down. Everything happening now is completely and totally the business of the Democrats. The only thing left for Republicans to “do” is vote against Democratic legislation, which makes them appear “against things” as Ronald Reagan said.
Fight fire with …
Fight fire with fire. I guess you don’t like getting a taste of your own medicine do you?… Oh well.. You had better get used to it because 3 out of 4 Americans want this so there will be plenty more where this comes from.
I am sorry you find …
I am sorry you find my profile to be such a threat… however I have no intentions of stopping when it comes to helping others understand the bill. As far as the rest of your rant.. If you ever took the time to actually check my page out you would see that I lay plenty of blame with the blue dog dems. You are a MORON.
Oh, that’s easy, …
Oh, that’s easy, goofball. There were no busses, and no disruption of the town hall. You teabaggers were out in full force, though, with a closed email invites to fill up the room an hour before the scheduled start time.
The video does represent the grassroots, AKA “We, the people”.
I support the …
I support the Public Option Plan. I feel as though it is the only way to go .I don’t really mind the opposition what I do mind are the lies being told. It makes me wonder if there is even a legitimate reason to oppose. I am not just upset with the Republicans for their inaction regarding this issue, but they have been inactive pretty much since they lost the election. They have been behaving in ways that would get most 3rd graders grounded. It just irritates me.
It may appear to be …
It may appear to be inaction, but Republicans don’t want the government involved in all these programs in the first place.
…Anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we’re denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we’re always ‘against’ things– we’re never “for” anything. Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant? it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so…
obama is making the …
obama is making the gov worse he is a sshlst he thinks spending more and more money will make things better he wants the gov to own peoples bsns and compnys
CSaction:
When …
CSaction:
When you block people simply for posting FACTS — you’re only admitting what an uneducated idiot you are
Log off YouTube & work towards that GED
You post things completely contrary to the CBO. Note: Obama the Chicago Thug has NEVER ran anything. Listen to the experts.
Govt has had DECADES to figure out how to make Soc Security, Medicare & Medicaid function efficiently……yet they’re all broke
Yet idiots believe Govt can handle something even MORE massive. ~Amazing
I don’t just blame …
I don’t just blame the republicans. I also blame a small group of the dems. That is one of the first thing one would notice upon visiting my page. I do blame all the republicans though because any given one of them could actually do something but they don’t do a thing as usual.
No, that’s …
No, that’s precisely the point. We ALL pay ALL the costs for ALL healthcare now, we just don’t get anything for it (47.5 million) not enough for it (another 50 million) and get rationing and death panels deciding we can’t have what we paid for in premiums.
Of course she’s on Medicare and has been for 20 years and it works fine, but needs to be improved.
The bill gets rid of waste (31% overhead) no negotiation for prices, denial of service, etc.
I was there. The …
I was there. The people protesting Lamborn were rude, loud, and unreasonable. Funny thing is, the older lady, even if she was on medicare, she paid in her whole life. That is different than the reforms in the bill. These fools will vote for a bill riddled with junk and pork and waste. We all want reform, but this is just foolish. Everytime we have our own rallies, they show up to disrupt, but if we go to theirs, we are called thugs or terrorists. They are the only goons and thugs out there!
Actually irrational …
Actually irrational, when anti reformists bring guns to intimidate, they’re called demented gun nuts, when they shout down people to censor them, they’re called fascists, when they have NOTHING but LIES to argue with, they’re called hypocrites. When they say MEdicare is socialism, an llve off Social Security, they’re called fools.
The bill tries to STOP rationing, increase competition, lower prices, and expand options to 1 more option.
Read it.
I am wondering how …
I am wondering how you can sit there and talk about how upset you are when others call you a racist and at the same time get all friendly with someone who just implied that he would love to kill me because of my views. I suppose that is okay though because my views are different than yours?
The information I …
The information I have is based on what is actually in the bill. It is the same bill that will apply to all of us. I find it funny when I see people like you getting all upset and practically foaming at the mouthg because you can not accept the truth. I mean seriously look at you.. calling me names and implying that you would like to kill me. Not a huge surprise considering you have no problem allowing 60 Americans a day to die while you look the other way.