More Email Obfuscation from Health Insurance Lobbyists

Because I think that the healthcare lobbyists have a pretty good database and email address list, I don’t receive any of those crazy or misleading emails from them.

Not anymore anyway.

But someone I know still does. An Independent who voted for Obama last year.

I asked her if she would forward these things to me and she agreed.

This is what she received the other day from these desperate, desperate people:

“YESTERDAY ON "ABC-TV" (BETTER KNOWN AS THE ALL BARRACK [sic] CHANNEL) DURING THE "NETWORK SPECIAL ON HEALTH CARE".... OBAMA WAS ASKED A HARD QUESTION FOR ONE OF THE FIRST TIMES:”

“"MR. PRESIDENT WILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GIVE UP YOUR CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROGRAM AND JOIN THE NEW 'UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAM' THAT THE REST OF US WILL BE ON ????"...... (BET YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER)... “

“THERE WAS A STONEY [sic] SILENCE AS OBAMA IGNORED THE QUESTION AND CHOSE NOT TO ANSWER IT !!!....”

“IN ADDITION, A NUMBER OF SENATORS WERE ASKED T HE SAME QUESTION AND THERE [sic] RESPONSE WAS...'WE WILL THINK ABOUT IT.’”

“AND THEY DID. IT WAS ANNOUNCED TODAY ON THE NEWS THAT THE "KENNEDY HEALTH CARE BILL" WAS WRITTEN INTO THE NEW HEALTH CARE REFORM INITIATIVE ENSURING THAT CONGRESS WILL BE 100%EXEMPT !”

“SO, THIS GREAT NEW HEALTH CARE PLAN THAT IS GOOD FOR YOU AND I... IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR OBAMA, HIS FAMILY OR CONGRESS...?? WE (THE AMERICAN PUBLIC) NEED TO STOP THIS PROPOSED DEBACLE ASAP !!!!... THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG !!!!!”

“PERSONALLY, I CAN ONLY ACCEPT A UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL THAT EXTENDS TO EVERYONE... NOT JUST US LOWLY CITIZENS... WHILE THE WASHINGTON "ELITE" KEEP RIGHT ON WITH THEIR GOLD-PLATED HEALTH CARE COVERAGES.”

“IF YOU AGREE PLEASE PASS THIS O N ....IF NOT PLAN TO SUFFER WITH THE OBAMA HEALTH CARE PLAN .....FOR FREE.... WHILE OUR SELF-SERVING POLITICIANS MAKE SURE THAT THEY TAKE CARE OF THEIR BUTTS AT OUR EXPENSE.”

All caps emphasis is theirs, not mine.

Now to be clear, this claim, that Members of Congress and Barack Obama are “exempt” from the Kennedy plan is utter obfuscation. Nothing of the kind appears in the bill. What does appear (on page 113 and 114 of the bill found here) is a list of the groups who are not allowed to participate in the program. Not allowed because they are already covered in other federal health care plans. This includes Members of Congress if they are enrolled in the “Federal employees health benefits program under chapter 89 of title 5, United States Code.”

And all of the hundreds of thousands of other federal employees who are enrolled in that program.

Others who cannot participate in the Kennedy plan are those enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid.

And those enrolled in Tricare – the plan that covers our soldiers and their families.

Or those who already have employer-sponsored health coverage.

But you see, the email fails to mention any of that. It serves only to confuse and enrage the witless of us out there.

The email also fails to mention the reason for the Kennedy bill in the first place. It fails to mention the “Sense” section found at the bottom of page 39 of the bill:

“(b) SENSE OF THE SENATE.—It is the sense of the Senate that Congress should establish a means for all Americans to enjoy affordable choices in health benefit plans, in the same manner that Members of Congress have such choices through the Federal employees health benefits program.”

Now the email address that the White House set up for us to forward these emails to them has been taken down. Instead they direct you to go to their Reality Check website. There you can scroll down and leave a message on what myths you think they should address in the future.

From personal experience acquired today, it’s pretty easy to do, as it turns out.