We all know those senior citizens love to write their letters to the editor, don’t we? And as a politician, you ignore these letter-writing seniors at your peril because they vote, too.
Well, guess what? The health insurance lobby, America’s Health Insurance Plans knows these things, too. So I should not have been surprised at the level they would stoop to in support of privatized Medicare.
What looked like a grass-roots letter-writing campaign by senior citizens demanding that Congress protect privatized Medicare health plans — a.k.a., Medicare Advantage, or Part C — has turned out to be a fraud by a consulting firm hired by AHIP.
See how AHIP got found out below the fold.
According to a report in the April 12 edition of the North Andover (Mass.) Eagle Tribune, multiple letters arrived at local newspapers in Massachusetts with suspiciously similar wording demanding that Congress do what’s necessary to save Medicare Advantage plans. As a former small-town newspaper editor, I can confirm that writers of letters to the editor are routinely contacted to verify authenticity. In this case, editors found that people they contacted about these letters have no knowledge of them, even though their names were on them.
The letters are apparently being composed and sent by the Boston office of a national political consulting firm, The Dewey Square Group, trying to create the illusion of a grassroots movement in support of Medicare Advantage, the privatized segment of Medicare that serves 20 percent of seniors with health benefits which is currently under scrutiny for overpayments its vendors receive. Dewey Square was hired by AHIP to defend Medicare Advantage.
This is sneaky stuff. The small, weekly paper I edited was frequently targeted by letter-writing campaigns on issues of national importance. As we were a small paper, with a local focus, we generally circular-filed such things unless there was a clear local angle. Many times, they were just 3-by-5 index cards, with a short, pre-printed message, and a blank at the bottom for local folks to sign. That, I had no problem with (though I wouldn't publish them), since it was a local person expressing their viewpoint, even if national matters were just something we thought belonged in other forums (we had more than enough local issues to fill our "letters" section). Netroots efforts, as the Eagle Tribune article points out, can also generate letters to a local newspaper with a click of a "Take Action" button at the Website of your favorite cause. These frequently get ignored as well.
But never did we find that such letter-writing efforts were complete frauds, with the people unaware that their names were being signed without their knowledge. Some of the folks contacted for these AHIP/Dewey Square-generated letters didn’t even know what Medicare Advantage was! It’s not quite identity theft, since nothing but the senior citizens’ name is being used, and it’s to drive opinion, not purloin goods or money. But my knowledge of newsgathering law tells me it could be actionable as a libel or defamation suit, if one of the victims could show they lost status among their friends and neighbors for the knowingly false impression created about their views.
Dewey Square says they got the names of the letter-writers by inviting them to "community meetings" with a lure of free food, door prizes and meeting with their local representatives. They say they offered the sample letters to seniors to send to their Congressmen or local newspaper. They argue that these folks have just forgotten that they agreed to have the letters sent in their name. Yeah, because seniors are dotty and forgetful, you know?
The worst of it is that, though privatized Medicare is largely the province of the right, Dewey Square was founded by and generally works for Democrats!
"The Dewey Square Group was founded in 1993 by three veteran Boston political campaigners with Democratic ties. One of the founders, Michael Whouley, was a strategist on John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.
The Dewey Square Group specializes in grass-roots campaigns, building such overwhelming support from ordinary citizens for a public policy position that politicians are brought into line."
I’ve got nothing inherently against Medicare Advantage plans. They are managed care for Medicare beneficiaries. For some elders with multiple health problems who need coordination of their care, access to a 24-7 nurse line and other special benefits and coverages — especially if they are on a lot of different medications and see multiple doctors — there’s value in these privatized plans. Traditional Medicare, Parts A and B, does no care management. It pays the bills and combats fraud, and that’s it. For many seniors that’s not enough. But the argument for privatized Medicare — privatized anything, really — has always been that the private sector can do things better/cheaper/more efficiently than government. Where that case can be proven, I’m all for it.
But Medicare Advantage has not made that case. The HMOs, PPOs and Private Fee-for-Service plans in Medicare Advantage are not doing the same things as Part A and B for less money. They are doing it for more money. In the case of PFFS plans, they are doing it for as much as 20 percent more money according to the CBO, the GAO and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. That’s why the Obama Administration and Congress have their knives out for it, pledging to cut reimbursements to the carriers.
"Obama's budget has $680 billion targeted for health care reform; $177 billion of that would be taken from Medicare Advantage."
I’d be fine with MA plans being reimbursed at par with traditional Medicare. The insurers know, however, they can’t make big coin that way, not without their overpayments. So their lobby, AHIP, is out there exploiting senior citizens with fraudulent efforts like this. This is how they do it. They fight dirty.
Kudos to the editorial staff of the North Andover Eagle Tribune and other papers who caught these guys red-handed. For all the lumps the journalism profession is taking these days, it’s comforting to know there are some out there who still take the job seriously, and are doing the legwork expected of the Fourth Estate.