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Baucus Believes Politicians Alone Should Control Health-Reform Debate
By: John R. Graham
9.22.2009
Back on June 5, the left wing was very upset that Senator Baucus chaired a Senate Finance Committee hearing on health reform without inviting advocates of government-monopoly (a.k.a. single-payer) health care to the table. So, they disrupted the hearing (although I'm not sure why, because most analysts understand that "public option," "co-op," "gateway," "exchange," etc., are all code-words for "single-payer five to ten years down the road"). The extremists noted that only lobbyists from the health-care industry had seats at the table, and inferred that Senator Baucus is unduly influenced by campaign contributions. Boy, did they get that wrong! In fact, the reason health insurers dole out cash to Senator Baucus and scramble for a seat at his table is that he's forbidden them from discussing health reform in any other venue. Humana, Inc. learned this when they mailed a one-page document on health reform to members of its Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. MA allows beneficiaries to choose private insurers instead of the government's traditional Medicare buraucracy to manage their Medicare benefits. Democrats would like to roll back MA choices in a money-grab to patch the holes in traditional Medicare. Unsurprisingly, Humana's mailer (which I have not seen) expressed caution over such a "reform."
Senator Baucus demanded that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launch an investigation, on the grounds that Humana had broken a law. CMS does require that communications about actual MA plans that private insurers are marketing to individuals be approved by CMS bureaucrats, but I've never heard the government assert censorship over private insurers' communications about public policy.
Well, there you have it: The government can summon the health-care industry to justify its existence in Beltway hearings, but the health-care industry does not have permission to communicate its positions to the public.
In a sane world, Humana, Inc. would send lawyers to Senator Baucus's office demanding that he stop harassing the company and assert its First Amendment rights; the CEO would express his outrage via interviews on the TV and radio; and Humana would follow up with a health-reform mailer to its customers every week.
No such luck in America today: Humana has announced that it is "co-operating" with the CMS investigation.
— John R. Graham is director of Health Care Studies at the Pacific Research Institute. This blog post originally appeared on National Review's Critical Condition.
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