Earlier this morning, the liberal health care reform advocate HCAN (Health Care for America Now) launched its latest Internet attack on health insurance companies naming them criminally responsible for the deaths of 45,000 Americans every year due to our “broken health care system.”
They take your money. They deny you care you paid for. Because of our broken health care system, 45,000 die every year. By any standard, the actions of insurance companies should be criminal.
While not out of character for HCAN, these accusations are hardly based in fact. The e-mail cites a study by Harvard Medical School researchers that does not in fact accuse health insurance companies of killing anyone, but instead blames 45,000 deaths a year on a lack of insurance coverage for an estimated 46 million people living in the United States. While the Harvard study does cite “cost or lack of employer-sponsored coverage” for 90-percent of the uninsured in America, there is nothing in the study to support or suggest criminal acts on the part of the insurance industry.
According to the e-mail (full text below), HCAN anticipated nationwide publicity stunts throughout the day today during which HCAN supporters would wrap local health insurance offices in crime scene tape to draw attention to their “criminal” activity. Those protests either failed to inspire even the most liberal members of HCAN’s mailing list or have failed to garner numbers significant enough to grab the attention of local media outlets. But, HCAN did manage to mock-up screen grabs of the websites of major insurance companies and cover them with the aforementioned police tape for people to view online.
From: Levana - Health Care for America Now <hcan@healthcareforamericanow.org>
Date: Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 10:02 AM
Subject: CriminalsDear Supporter:
They take your money. They deny you care you paid for. Because of our broken health care system, 45,000 die every year.1 By any standard, the actions of insurance companies should be criminal.
Today across the country, thousands of people will be showing up at insurance company offices and wrapping them with crime scene tape and exposing their actions, because it’s a crime to deny our care.
We’ve created a little website to drive the point home, and I thought you might like it. Just choose your insurance company below:
Click here if your insurance company is CIGNA
Click here if your insurance company is WellPoint or Blue Cross
Click here if your insurance company is UnitedHealth
Click here if you don’t know your insurance company, or if you’re uninsured
I hope you’ll call your Senators today at 1-877-264-HCAN and share this website with your friends. Just use the tools on the right of the page to spread the word.
We must make sure that the American people and Congress understand that if the insurance companies win, we lose.
To your health,
Levana Layendecker
Health Care for America Now
Tags: Harvard Medical School, HCAN, Health Care for America Now
