From Raw Story:
Insurers admit 50,000 employees lobbying Congress to claim profits fair
“A spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s trade group, admitted in an article published Monday that as many as 50,000 industry employees are involved in an effort to fight back against aggressive healthcare reform.
(snip)
“The health-insurance industry is sending thousands of its employees to town-hall meetings and other forums during Congress’s August recess to try to counter a tide of criticism directed at the insurers and remain a player — and not an outsider — in the debate over the future of the health-care system,” the Journal’s Vanessa Fuhrmans and Avery Johnson wrote Monday.
Employees of the health insurers have also been given talking points that encourage them to keep a low profile and avoid taking “the bait” when the industry is criticized in public, the reporters say. The industry’s trade group drafted a “Town Hall Tips” memo that instructs employees to stay calm and not to yell at members of Congress.”
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If there’s 50,000 lobbyists working for the insurance companies’ interests what’s the chance the public is going to get a fair health care plan? I’m reminded of something my mother used to say-Not a snowball’s chance in hell.
This makes me wonder if the screaming “average Americans” at the town hall meetings could be some of these lobbyists.
Posted by Vixen as News at 11:39 PM CDT