Who Else Has Been Pressuring Medicare Beneficiaries to Lobby Against Health Reform?
Zack asked this question earlier, and we’re still waiting for an official answer, but news stories from back in April strongly suggest that Humana wasn’t the only insurance company enlisting seniors (legitimately and otherwise) to lobby against changes to Medicare Advantage. In fact, the problem may have been industry-wide. Here’s an April 13 story from the Eagle Tribune in Massachusetts: Across Massachusetts, senior citizens are writing letters to newspapers demanding that their representatives in Congress protect a form of health insurance called Medicare Advantage. At least that’s what newspaper editors are supposed to think. Some of those seniors are unaware that they have sent any such letters to newspapers. Some of them hadn’t even heard of Medicare Advantage. “I did not write a letter to the editor. It’s not from me,” said Gloria Gosselin, 75, of Lawrence. Gosselin’s name was on one of three strikingly similar letters touting the Medicare Advantage program that were sent to The
