HHS: Stop Criticizing Or Be Charged With A Crime!

This is about as flagrant a violation of First Amendment free speech rights as I have ever seen.

Okay, here’s the story. Humana has been sending out mailings talking about proposed funding cuts to the Medicare Advantage program… seniors on the Advantage program get more and better care, though it does cost Medicare more money. These programs have been targeted with deep spending cuts, especially in the recently released Baucus bill.

So Humana’s mailings are warning seniors on the Advantage program that these funding cuts will reduce the quality of care they receive. This is a claim, by the way, that was confirmed by the CBO analysis of the bill.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54515

The health care bill currently under review in the Senate Finance Committee reportedly would cut payments to Medicare Advantage by more than $100 billion over 10 years. According to CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf, in testimony on Tuesday, those cuts and other changes "would reduce the extra benefits that would be made available to beneficiaries through Medicare Advantage plans."

So the claim is true… or at least it’s confirmed by an independent CBO analysis.

Senator Max Baucus, the architect of the bill being thus criticized, did not like what Humana had to say. He complained to Health and Human Services about it. And then the HHS threatened Humana with legal action for spreading "misleading and confusing" information about the ObamaCare bill.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/22/AR2009092201849.html

Humana, of course, backed down, because they have far too much to lose. But they never should have been threatened in the first place… isn’t dissenting speech PRECISELY the speech most deserving protection under our Constitution? That the Federal Government should act in this manner and violate the US Constitution just to advance a White House agenda item should be a warning to EVERYBODY in this nation. If they’ll do it to Humana, then nobody’s right to free speech will be respected.

Now, I’m no huge fan of the Republicans… they’ve acted more like Democrats-Lite than like the fiscally conservative champions of small government they’d all like us to believe they are. But in this case they are acting correctly.

The GOP has threatened to block the Senate approval of the HHS nominee unless the gag order is lifted and the free speech rights of Humana are respected. They also correctly note that this action flies in the face of previous HHS decisions that the government has no basis in law to forbid health insurance companies from informing their customers of legislation and encouraging them to express their opinions to lawmakers.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54534

HHS “had previously noted that there was no legal authority to justify prohibiting a health plan ‘from informing its members of proposed legislation and exhorting them to express their opinions’ about it,” the letter stated.

In fact, HHS had said that shutting down this type of communication “would violate basic freedom of speech and other constitutional rights of the Medicare beneficiary as a citizen,” the letter stated.

However, the Obama administration reversed that decision, the letter added.

“Your department has done this by imposing an industry-wide gag order without apparent justification or basis in law, contradicting your past public guidance and the plain language and spirit of the First Amendment, among the most sacred tenets of our democracy,” McConnell and his Republican colleagues wrote.

“America’s seniors and the health plans that serve them deserve to have their free speech rights respected. Their rights should not be subject to the whims of any administration, and the health plans that serve them should not be threatened with punishment if they speak out on a matter of public concern simply because the administration disagrees with their position,” they added.

The Obama Administration is headed straight down the road of tyranny… using the power of government to squash dissenting speech is a favorite tactic of tyrants, and we should not tolerate this behavior in our government. Not, that is, if we still cherish the concepts of freedom and liberty. I do… do you?