Think Progress: Internal Health Industry Memos Reveal Campaign To Undercut Healthcare Reform

Thinkprogress has links on its site to two internal memos from the healthcare industry trade association describing a systematic strategy to undercut efforts to reform the healthcare industry, as well as lobby Congress. It is pretty amazing just how effective those methods were, and still are. Indeed, many DUers often unwittingly repeat these talking points as they attack President Obama's proposed public option.

Memo 1:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/ahip1.pdf

Memo 2:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/ahip2.pdf

Thinkprogress discusses how these memos resemble current day efforts to undermine healthcare reform:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/21/ahip-moore-strategy/

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Now, as Congress moves into high-gear for reforming health care, AHIP appears be positioning itself to defeat a public option by using the same playbook they used against Moore in 2007. The AHIP anti-Moore memo similarly states:

Define the Health Indusrance Industry as Part of the Solution … Spread the word about ‘proactive solutions’ for health care … Highlight the value of managed care … A Debate We Can Win: Improving U.S. System Versus Enacting Government-Run Care

This week, AHIP released a new feel-good ad that posits private insurance as the cure to America’s health care crisis, along with a statement reaffirming that Congress must enact reform “without creating a government run plan” to compete with insurers. Similar to its message against Moore, the narrator for the new AHIP ad declares that “we’re America’s Health Insurance Companies, supporting bipartisan reforms.”

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A central strategy of the anti-Moore memo is described as: “Focus on Our Reform Proposals While Patients and Allies Make the Case Against Government-Run Care.” The allies were instructed to “showcase victims and horrors of government-run systems” and “bring victims of single-payer systems to the US for a media tour.” Indeed, while AHIP has made significant efforts this year to portray itself as “for reform” without a public option, it has left allied groups to do the dirty work.

The allies AHIP is leaning on this year include vicious attack groups such as Conservatives for Patients’ Rights (CPR), a group run by the same firm that managed the “Swift Boats” campaign against John Kerry, and Patients United, an astroturf group run by a former associate of Jack Abramoff. CPR is spending $20 million dollars running fear-mongering ads featuring people upset with the health care system in Canada and the UK. In addition, as AHIP had planned for Moore in 2007, CPR manages a website with various videos showing the supposed horrors of government-run systems. Patients United has organized advertising campaigns and media tours for experts and similar “victims” of government health care.

The ultimate goal of the anti-Moore strategy, to “disqualify government-run health care as a politically viable solution,” appears to mirror what we see AHIP doing today.

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These scumbags want to keep the money rolling in to them...

Any meaningful health care reform would certainly derail that.

To hell with them!

:grr:

I actually think that President Obama is doing an admirable job of pushing healthcare reform and a public option despite the millions of dollars being mobilized against him by the healthcare industry, as well as the efforts of the entire Republican Party, and turncoat Democratic Senators like Max Baucas and Kent Conrad who are in the pocket of the healthcare industry.

We know there is not a chance in hell this will get out except maybe on Olbermann or Rachael. Thank God for them.

And even though there reports are generally pro-reform, they rarely delve "into the weeds" of healthcare reform. Instead, much of the coverage tends to be on tactics and politics, rather than the substance of the debate. Indeed, the LA Times noted a study showing that 75% of the news coverage on healthcare reform was on politics and tactics with only 25% touching on the substance of healthcare reform. This is why the Republicans can get away with lies like the healthcare reform bill is a secret effort to engage in the genocide of seniors. Sadly, as the healthcare memos show, this part of an active disinformation campaign by the healthcare industry and the media industy is an active participant. Afterall, someone has to pay for the advertising.