Earlier in the week, we posted information about attacks ads running in the Mankato Free Press. Several senior citizens had contacted us via email, so we dug into the story. Firedog Lake also looked at similar ads in another district in the post Targeting Democratic Freshmen By Frightening Senior Citizens.
In today's Free Press, Congressman Walz responds to the ads in In response — Special interest ad misleads:
Last Friday and again on Tuesday, Free Press readers had an opportunity to observe how special interest groups attempt to influence decisions made in Washington.
The so-called Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care and the American Health Care Association ran a full page color ad costing anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000 in Friday's and Tuesday’s editions of The Free Press. These special interests urged constituents to call my office in opposition to a bill that most Americans support, the CHAMP Act.
This legislation provides 11 million children from low-income families with health insurance, corrects overpayments by Medicare to private insurers, expands preventative care coverage and mental health services under Medicare, ensures patient access to physicians, and safeguards high-quality care in rural areas.
Hundreds of non-profit groups and professional organizations supported my vote, including the AARP, Children’s Defense Fund, American Nurses Association, the AFL-CIO, and the American Medical Association. These grassroots and non-profit associations stand in stark contrast to the big businesses that bought the ad.
The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care is an umbrella group of the American Health Care Association, which is made up of companies like the pharmaceutical giant Merck, Credit Suisse, and several of the largest for-profit nursing homes, all of whom make millions of dollars from the Medicare system.
A major contributor to AQNHC is HCR Manor Care whose CEO, Paul Ormond, received an $18 million dollar pay package last year, and holds stock options valued up to $186 million, according to the Toledo Blade. I surmise that for Mr. Ormond, The Free Pass ad was a good buy, considering that defeating this legislation would mean millions of additional taxpayer dollars to his company.
Instead of heeding the advice of biased organizations such as the Alliance, my colleagues in Congress and I listened to the recommendations of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPac), a non-partisan, independent group, which found that skilled nursing facilities were making substantial profits from Medicare and judged that there would be ample access to nursing care for beneficiaries even without these taxpayer-funded windfalls.
The CHAMP Act froze, but did not cut, funding to skilled nursing facilities in order to allow fair competition with inpatient rehabilitation facilities. Mr. Ormond’s profits will not increase this year as a result of more taxpayer subsidies, but for seniors the availability of high-quality, competitive care will improve.
The best part of this lesson is that our democracy is alive and well. Congress did not fold to pressure from multi-million dollar conglomerates that falsely claim that the CHAMP Act is taking away from Medicare and from seniors. For too long, these private insurance companies and big nursing home chains have reaped the benefits of Medicare overpayments, and when I voted for the CHAMP Act, I voted for legislation that will help the most vulnerable of our community: our low-income children and seniors.
The people of the First District don’t have to buy expensive and deceptive ads. They don’t have to hire expensive lobbyists. People in southern Minnesota can be confident that I have and will continue to cast votes that are in the interest of our children and seniors, no matter how many full page, color ads costing thousands of dollars the special interest groups can buy.
Rep. Tim Walz is a Democrat who represents the First Congressional District.
Update: Welcome Firedog Lake visitors. For a new round-up post about this issue, click here.
You can expect a whole lot more of this stuff over the next 16 months as the Republicans in power become more desperate to hang on to that power.
Posted by: Jeff Hanneman | August 31, 2007 at 03:05 PM