Major Health Insurance Company Urges Employees To Attend Tea Parties

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Major Health Insurance Company Urges Employees To Attend Tea Parties
By Brian Beutler - August 19, 2009, 9:45AM

At least one major insurer is urging its employees to participate in tea parties.

Last week, United Health Group--the second largest health insurance company in the country--sent out a letter to its employees urging them to call UHG's United for Health Reform Advocacy Hotline to speak with an advocacy specialist about health care reform. The advocacy specialist, according to the letter, is there to help UHG employees write personalized messages to elected officials, and to arm them with talking points to use at local events in order to better oppose the public health insurance option.

TPM has obtained the letter, which you can read here, but a UHG advocacy specialist was not willing to provide TPM with a copy.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009/08/united-health-group-astroturf-letter.php?page=1

However, a source who's insured by UHG--and who also obtained the letter--called the hotline on Tuesday and says the company directed him to an events list hosted by the right wing America's Independent Party, and suggested he attend an anti-health care reform tea party sponsored by religious fundamentalist Dave Daubenmire, scheduled for today outside the office of Blue Dog Rep. Zack Space (D-OH).

UHG was not immediately available for comment.

Read more: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/major-health-insurance-company-urges-employees-to-attend-tea-parties.php?ref=fpblg

[glinda]

1. And AARP wonders why people are dropping their memberships with

AARP's affiliation now with United Health.

[pattmarty]

4. AARP is a shameless organization. It's main purpose and income...........

..........comes from the sale of insurance policies to "seniors". I dropped my membership when Bush pushed his "Medicare reform" plan through and AARP supported it. The reason the seniors are dropping their memberships is because of the "kill grandma" campaign so successfully waged by the right. AARP as a group that helps seniors is a fucking joke. My wife who is on Medicare has to pay AARP (United Healthcare) $244 a month for "supplemental" insurance to cover the out of pocket expenses of Medicare. That's 3 grand a year on top of Medicare. The insurance companies are fucking bloodsuckers and at the very least should be STRONGLY regulated.

[glinda]

14. Exactly right. Sorry about your wife having to pay that. I pay nearly 400/mo

for regular insurance that doesn't cover much. I would rather pay what she does but still.....

[pattmarty]

16. If you pay 400 mo, you can't be getting much. What are your.............

............deductibles and copays? Also, one thing you don't hear mentioned much is the "lifetime cap" on benefits. My wife's is ONLY a supplemental plan to cover what Medicare doesn't that's why it's "only" 244. I am not yet 65 so I have a retiree BCBS plan with NO DRUG benefit and ONLY 300K "lifetime" cap. I pay like 5 grand a year for that and consider myself lucky. We have to have as a minimum the so called "public option" to control these bloodsuckers. I am a couple of months away from being 63 yo, so I'll be on Medicare before these "reforms" are in place (assuming a "good" bill is passed) so I should be OK. I feel for everyone else that is getting fucked by these leaches. I have 4 boys age 31 to 47 and at this point only 1 has insurance through his work and he pays over 30.00 a week for just only him (he's not married). BUT, we have the best healthcare in the world, NOT...........

[glinda]

23. I am getting "crap". It is BCBS. I don't even want to talk about it. It sucks. I am a long ways

from Medicare. We were paying 1250 or more per month for two of us BCBS. No coverage on husband's meds at all which were expensive. All came out of his retirement savings. Exactly how do they think middle aged people and elderly pay for all this stuff when they are middle to lower income? They don't eat. I see it in the grocery stores. Elderly folk with just only a few items in their carts and bad items at that.

[pattmarty]

25. I wish you and your husband luck, and hope a GOOD piece of.................

..............legislation gets passed to help you and my sons and millions of Americans. This I believe is one of those now or never events in our history.

[tomm2thumbs]

2. posturing and idiocy - so nice to see, yet somehow so expected out of insurers

[unpossibles]

3. But I heard it was grassroots! FOX news told me so!

lol.

[harun]

5. Why did I know this was going to be United Health before even reading

the posting...

*sigh*

[Hugin]

6. Well, there's a shocker.

:eyes:

[Altoid_Cyclist]

7. UHG...what a shock.

This is the same UHG that is able to provide the GNP of some countries
in compensation to their top gun but is making my wife and me jump through hoops in order to try to collect $80 for tests that they promised to cover with no strings attached. I think that I'll give them another call after seeing this.

[Hugin]

8. Maybe, if you tell them you're going to a tea-party they'll write it off.

You don't have to tell them you'll be attending the tea-party representing the other side. ;)

[Altoid_Cyclist]

9. That's why I love this place!

Not only do you get the real news of the world, there are so many bright people here that are able to think of things and offer great advice that I might not think of.

[kpete]

11. welcome

[Altoid_Cyclist]

21. Thank You.

As the saying goes: long time listener, first time caller. I've been here almost every day for 5 years but never had the courage to speak up.
However, my therapist and my wife said that I need to be more assertive.
(AKA grow a pair!)

[Delphinus]

10. Thanks for this.

Light continues to spread.

[One_Life_To_Give]

12. As a public plan would have them gainfully unemployed

it's not surprising at all that people who stand to loose their jobs might want to lobby against it.

[Hugin]

13. No... It's not people at this level which would be unemployed.

It's the upper-management types who do nothing for their money.

[liberal N proud]

15. Why is United Health Group worried about reform

If the federal government programs like the Post Office are so inefficient and can't compete against private organizations like UPS and FEDEX, then why are they worried?

Are they afraid they will lose their death panels?

[nc4bo]

17. Oh, they are just too precious, bless their hearts. nt

[LeftHander]

18. Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529 (2007) nt

[dflprincess]

19. United Health Group would be shocked to find out how many of its

employees support single payer. At least that was the case 5 years or so ago. I imagine the number might be greater.

Every now and then copies of a panel for a "Bloom County" strip would show up on billboards in the building. It showed Opus screaming "Single payer health care now!" It never stayed on the boards long and no one ever got caught putting it up (I swear, it wasn't me!) - but most people found it amusing and tended to agree.

[grilled onions]

20. United THEY Stand--Divided THEY Fall

Once again the "we" only includes a portion of the population. They are blind to the rest who are uninsured,under insured or a pink slip away from joining these groups. It's always the bottom line with them. It's a business. It's numbers. People----suffering--humanity doesn't even enter the equation. They are convinving those that have that the rest do not deserve to get or or too lazy to pay for it or whatever other excuses they can come up with. The fact that many cannot get any coverage thanks to pre existing conditions,affordability,age doesn't even enter their minds NOR their tea parties!

[MARALE]

22. We were told to do the same thing from our VP

He wrote us a letter on how bad government healthcare is and if we were concerned there was a form letter attached to 'guide' us on what to write to our government figures. We are not even a healthcare company.

[windoe]

24. Hoping MSNBC gets ahold of this...

:popcorn:

[Name removed]

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