At the beginning of October, GOP U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn outlined his plan for health reform in a short video shot above a 5th Congressional District highway off ramp, the Colorado Springs mountains in the distance, his hair waving in the breeze. He criticizes the Democratic plans as big government job killers.
His source for this assertion? It’s the same “independent” Lewin Group he and GOP fellow travelers like gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry have been citing for months and that was nevertheless exposed during the August town hall battles as a front for United Health Group, a major corporate insurance company out to squash any version of reform.
United HealthGroup serves more than 70 million health insurance customers. Its brands include AmeriChoice, Ovations, UnitedHealth Group International, and UnitedHealthcare. The Lewin Group is not independent.
But Lamborn loves the Lewin Group, he uses its numbers to scare constituents off of health reform as an infringement on free will and individualism; as a threat to private business; an attack on consumer choice; an expansion of government; and a straight jacket on economic growth. The Lewin Group both supports and undercuts his threats, as well as his proposed solutions.
Lamborn’s health care YouTube is a health care politics rorschach test: See what you will. It’s a boon both to those who oppose reform and to those who embrace it.
[The Democratic plans] will drive up cost and force people out of their own plans and into a nationalized plan whether they want that or not. When there is a national health care plan it will have the inevitable result of crowding out private insurance companies. People will not be able to keep the policies that they have right now. Up to 114 million Americans according to the independent Lewin Group will lose their coverage and be forced into the government run plan. lIf there is a national helth care plan and it takes over one sixth of our national economy this will stifle jobs and economic growth in our country for the future.
Comments are closed.