Michelle Malkin has a post critical of WellCare which she calls “a shady Medicare insurer…initially funded by far Left billionaire George Soros.” I don’t know the specifics about WellCare and she might be correct in her criticism. However, as I’ve noted in several previous posts, the problems with Medicare Advantage plans are widespread, involving multiple insurance companies. Many of them are now under investigation for fraudulent practices. This has become a serious problem due to George Bush’s Medicare D program which also provided large subsidies for Medicare Advantage programs.
I’ve criticized the entire program in multiple previous posts as being a case of corporate welfare to benefit Bush’s major contributors in the insurance and pharmaceutical industries while using government money ineffectively to benefit Medicare patients. This is true regardless of which individuals might be involved in the company. Interesting that she points out this specific plan due to alleged ties to George Soros. It is also interesting that many Bush-apologists often criticize government programs in general but ignore this flagrant case of using a government program as payback to contributors.
Update I: Steve Benen provides further information, noting that while Soros had sold off his holdings in the company long ago the current executives of the company have had a clear Republican bias.
Update II: As is noted in the track back in the comments, Health Care BS has linked to this post. As I’ve also found in other dealings with that blog. Health Care BS is an unintentionally accurate description of this dishonest and clueless blogger. As he has done in the past, a segment of the post is taken out of context and he outright lies to attempt to make a point.
He compares my criticism of Bush’s Medicare plan to the conspiracy theories of the “twofers” ignoring both my frequent criticism of such conspiracy theories and my actual criticisms of the plan. He lies when he claims, “According to Liberal Values, this means Wellcare is on the payroll.” No such claim is ever made. My criticism is based upon facts supported in the linked posts and hardly constitutes a conspiracy theory. The actual facts:
- The pharmaceutical and insurance companies have been major contributors to George Bush. It is hardly being a conspiracy theorist to suggest that this might have influenced policy, and it is quite naive to ignore this possibility.
- The pharmaceutical companies benefit greatly from aspects of Bush’s plan. The plan prohibits Medicare from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for lower prices. This is especially beneficial to the pharmaceutical companies as many of the beneficiaries are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare. Their prescriptions were previously paid by Medicaid at reduced prices, and are now paid by Medicare at full price.
- Insurance companies, such as WellCare (which has also been a contributor to the Republicans) benefit due to the large subsidies for treating Medicare patients above what it costs to cover such patients in the Medicare program. Previous posts here have documented how much of this money is being used to increase profits as opposed to providing increased benefits to patients.
He is also dishonest in the implication that I’m only concerned with “conspiracy theories” about Bush while implying that charges against Soros are being ignored. My post actually says Malkin “might be correct in her criticism.” This is a legal matter and we will see who is prosecuted and convicted. If Soros is found guilty I have no interest in defending him, while HealthCare BS sure has a stake in ignoring any Republican involvement and attacking a liberal like Soros. At present conservative blogs are concentrating on attacks on Soros , whose involvement appears much less significant compared to that of Republicans, but ultimately this is something to be decided by the criminal justice system.
Once again, Health Care BS is run by a partisan political hack and liar who has nothing meaningful to say about health care policy.
