Medicare Astroturf Scammers & Robot Phone Calls

I got another one of those robot phone calls today, you know, the kind that you can't talk back to. It was from the The Coalition for Medicare Choices representing an insurance racket called Healthcare Advantage. Being on medicare myself, and just plain curious, I didn't hang upright away, so I was informed that Obama's healthcare plan is cutting funds to these programs and to press 1 to join the coalition. Instead of hanging up I waited to see what would happen, and it repeated the message, leaving me somewhat frustrated that I couldn't at least express my thoughts on the matter. Oh well, I'll get on the tubes and see wazzup.....zzzzzZZZZ*

Oh, so that's what got their underwear hiked up in Cheney country. Check this out...Heehehehehehehehehehehehehe*

Health plan stocks sink as Senate bill gets boost

MarketWatch
Oct. 8, 2009, 11:37 a.m. EDT By Laura Mandaro

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of private providers of health-care plans dropped sharply on Thursday. Late Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office said the Senate Finance Committee's health-care reform legislation will cost $829 billion over 10 years -- lower than President Barack Obama's desired cap of $900 billion -- and reduce the budget deficit.

WellPoint Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!wlp/quotes/nls/wlp (WLP 44.72, -2.94, -6.17%) shares were the biggest decliner on the S&P 500 /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x (SPX 1,066, +8.71, +0.82%) , dropping more than 6%.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!unh/quotes/nls/unh (UNH 24.14, -0.92, -3.65%) shares sank 5.2%,

Aetna, Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!aet/quotes/nls/aet (AET 25.75, -1.31, -4.84%) lost 4.5%

and Humana, Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!hum/quotes/nls/hum (HUM 35.98, -1.92, -5.07%) slid 4.3%.

Well, by golly, there must have been a few folks listening to Olbermann last night, not to mention what Congressman Alan Grayson had to say the other day...( :

These corporate crooks have been stirring up the astroturf crowd for sometime now...

Elderly used as front in letter-writing campaign 'Grass-roots' effort looks more like Astroturf

By Ken Johnson
kjohnson@eagletribune.com

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 Eagle-Tribune.

Writers of letters to the editor are routinely contacted by newspapers to make sure letters are legitimate. In this case, they weren't.

All three of the purported authors of the letters said they had no idea their names were being used to advocate for the health insurance program.

The letters were, in fact, composed and sent by the Boston office of a national political consulting firm attempting to create the appearance of a "grass-roots" movement for Medicare Advantage.