CNN moderating $80K Aetna health care "town hall"

By GottaLaff

It's disturbing how little most people know about duplicity of Big Insurance. All they see is the great press about how they've "cooperated" with the ObamAdministration on health care reform:

Tomorrow, health insurance giant Aetna is sponsoring a “town hall conversation on the national health system reform debate” at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. CNN anchor Tony Harris will moderate the panel, which features lobbyists from the health insurance industry and opponents of reform.

That's some panel, huh? To find out who these panelists are, go here. Hint: One of them doesn't like Michael Moore very much.

The event, which is being funded by an $80,000 grant from Aetna, is co-hosted by the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, a group that also counts Aetna as a corporate sponsor.

This town hall is the type of “listening tour” event the insurance industry has encouraged to make the public believe that insurers support reform.

Aetna listens and listens... while they try to derail health care reform. That's called multi-tasking.

Check out ThinkProgress’ report on the insurance industry’s “duplicitous” campaign to kill meaningful reform.

Oh, and thanks, Tony! It's swell to see CNN out there on the wrong side of things.

VIDEO: ‘Duplicitous’ Campaign Of Insurers To Charm The Public While Secretly Killing Reform

By GottaLaff



Lower than low. The really infuriating thing is that so few people will get wind of this until it's too late... if it isn't already:

Potter then explained how insurers would use a variety of front groups, set up by PR companies like APCO, to advance a hidden attack campaign. The “dirty” campaign involved feeding talking points to right-wing media, like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. It also includes the creation of front groups to run negative advertisements about reform and mobilize anti-reform “grassroots” groups. Finally, insurers would coordinate with, and sometimes fund, conservative think-tanks to produce academic-appearing reports to advance their cause. Leaked memos from the insurance companies — regarding the campaign against Moore’s SiCKO movie — not only support Potter’s assertions, but specifically describe every step of this process. [...]

To better illustrate the insurers’ two-faced campaign to kill reform, we have produced this chart.

I'd take nausea meds right now, but my plan probably wouldn't cover them. Har dee har, so not funny any more.