Watch: The Health Care Mash
Email from Jon "Bowzer" Bauman - Sept. 28, 2009
Subject: Despicable: Stop Humana from Scaring Seniors
Dear Supporter:
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman was so outraged by Humana, he asked us to send his message to you.
Y'know, its OK to have a civil debate about the merits of this or that plan for health care reform. But its just not OK to lie about the facts to try to scare us into caving in to a corporate agenda! That's what health care giant Humana, a company many of us are currently forced to trust, did last week.[1]
Theres a furious debate going on right now about whether Humana did or didn't break the law by using government mailing lists to advance their own interests in a letter a lot of you received.[2]
But the real, practical point is not legality, but morality.
AREN'T YOU JUST SICK OF BEING LIED TO? I KNOW I AM.
Will you help me stop these lies? Please forward this email to your friends and family in Florida. (You can click the link--or just click forward in your email.)
Humana tried to scare seniors all over America by writing: "Leading health reform proposals being considered in Washington, D.C. include... spending reductions to original Medicare and Medicaid."
THATS SIMPLY FALSE.
Humana wrote: "Millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable."
THATS JUST NOT TRUE.
The AARP says, "None of the health care reform proposals being considered by Congress would cut Medicare benefits or increase your out-pocket costs for Medicare services."[3]
The Humana mailer was just meant to scare us with lies to turn seniors against health care reform so Humana can protect its bottom line.
ENOUGH!
If there's a legitimate debate point to be made, let's hear it. But dont flat out lie to us!
I may have played a street-smart-only greaser in a 50's rock band, but in real life I'm a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Columbia. I know how to read a Congressional health plan. And I don't like being lied to!
Not one plan on the table threatens your Medicare benefits or increases your out-of-pocket costs, period!
But every plan could result in lesser windfalls for for-profit insurers. Every plan might threaten Cigna CEO Ed Hanways $12.2 million a year salary (thats $5883 an hour), or his $73 million golden parachute.[4]
Don't let them get away with this. It's time to fix health care, not scare seniors. Forward this email to everyone you know.
WE MIGHT BE GETTING OLDER, BUT WITH AGE COMES WISDOM, AND WERE NOT STUPID! DONT LIE TO US, HUMANA!
Thanks for your support, and let's fix health care together for us, and for our kids.
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman
1. Humana Mailer Targets Elderly, Claims Medicare Benefits To Be Cut, Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dawn-teo/humana-mailer-targets-eld_b_289421.html
2. Medicare Sets Probe of Humana Letters, Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125349705522626821.html
3. AARP: Myths Vs. Facts: http://aarp.convio.net/site/PageNavigator/Myths_vs_Facts
4. Americans United for Change: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULKJiRv-Lnk
