"Nonpartisan" Front For Insurers Has Been Widely Cited

The Lewin Group, exposed by the Washington Post as a subsidiary of an insurance company, has been widely cited as an objective, nonpartisan source of information by those opposed to the creation of a public health insurance option.

In particular, after an April 2009 report by the Lewin Group alleging that a public option would force roughly 120 million Americans off their current insurance plan, Republicans, conservatives and insurance companies frequently touted that figure.

In a recent interview with the Huffington Post, a spokesperson for America's Health Insurance Plans used it as ammunition against a public option.

Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) cited it in a syndicated op-ed earlier this month, saying: "Yet the nonpartisan Lewin Group predicts that two out of three Americans who get their health care through their employer would lose it under the House Democrat plan."

Early in June, leading Republicans sent President Obama a letter declaring their opposition to the public option, citing the Lewin group's study as evidence that it "would result in as many as 119.1 million Americans losing their private coverage."

On June 9, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said that "you would expect to see 120 million Americans without health insurance if a public option went into competition."

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) argued on May 12, 2009, that a public health care plan "will deprive roughly 120 million Americans of their current health care coverage."

This week, House Minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) wrote on his website: "...As the Lewin Group has found, it [the public plan] would be more like an "offer you can't refuse," since over 100 million Americans would lose their private insurance."

On May 21, 2009, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) wrote on the official GOP website: "Estimates from independent actuaries at the Lewin Group suggest that well over half of all Americans currently with employer-sponsored health coverage -- nearly 120 million individuals-would lose their current coverage due to the creation of a government-run health plan."

And the conservative media has run with this, too.

Karl Rove, in a June 2009 op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled How To Stop Socialized Health Care, wrote: "The Lewin Group estimates 70% of people with private insurance -- 120 million Americans -- will quickly lose what they now get from private companies and be forced onto the government-run rolls."

In arguments against the public option, the Weekly Standard referenced the Lewin Group's report, while the Washington Times cited the 120 million figure without naming its source.

Comments

[Ray Brown]

03:35 PM on 07/28/2009

Why would the Rep. cite the United Health Care, which had a four hundred million dollar settlement for defrauding its policy holder and owns the Lewin Group via a subsidiary?

[expired]

05:55 PM on 07/23/2009

Loosers on twitter.

[expired]

03:58 PM on 07/23/2009

So, as long as the RepubliCRATS and the spineless Dems do nothing to support the publci option or to dispute all the lies (i.e. this one), health care reform may not come to fruition.

Come on Dems, grow a pair, help the President push this. Good grief. It seems he is always left out to fend for the country by himself. What a bunch of puh cees.

[expired]

03:56 PM on 07/23/2009

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-kirsten-gillibrand/help-me-fight-for-a-publi_b_241461.html

[1differentdrummer]

02:39 PM on 07/23/2009

Would you trust anything from UHC? They have put the screws to people repeatedly.

[Skepticat]

10:38 AM on 07/23/2009

It's pretty hard to be non partisan or objective if you are the subsidiary of a health care corporation making huge profits out of the existing system. One of the wonderful things about the age of internet is that within minutes linkages can be proven - and claims of objectivity debunked by cold hard facts.

[Skeetshooter]

01:41 AM on 07/23/2009

Lies, damned lies, and STATISTICS.

[unite4change]

12:25 AM on 07/23/2009

The sad thing about this is we sent these people to Washington to work for us. The old white guys just cannot do the right thing because they are so greedy.

[unite4change]

12:24 AM on 07/23/2009

The GOP is about big business so why would this be shocking? Check out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. All they talk about is defeating Obama.

[unite4change]

12:13 AM on 07/23/2009

The money the insurance companies are playing with belong to the American people.

[LeLoup]

10:29 PM on 07/22/2009

"Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said that "you would expect to see 120 million Americans without health insurance if a public option went into competition."

The sheer stupidity of this claim was proof positive the Lewin Group is a joke.

[artgurrl]

09:38 PM on 07/22/2009

Is anyone surprised that the GOP uses non-bipartisan corporate insurance numbers skewed to favor the health insurance corporations and put fear into Americans to make them think that they will be forced to take the government option or be thrown off healthcare altogether? They have no solutions themselves so they rely on corporate numbers and lies and they still use fear as a way to get what they want. I really hope the American people see through these lies and propaganda. I think more proof came out today about the corporation (United Healthcare) that subsidizes the Lewin group. They made hundreds of millions in profits during a time when more and more people are losing their healthcare and jobs. And, the fact that they deny health care to people who buy their healthcare insurance. That should be proof right there that something is seriously wrong with this system. Take the profit out of the healthcare system.

[ranchero42]

09:09 PM on 07/22/2009

If health insurance companies want to score points with the American people and against health care reform, this ain't the way to do it. Sure does make it look like the truth and the GOP remain perfect strangers.

[LMPE]

08:49 PM on 07/22/2009

Anything with which Eric Can't-do-anything is associated is automatically suspect.

[shamaniceconomist]

07:42 PM on 07/22/2009

The insurance industry is playing with billions of dollars on this issue. This is just one tiny detail of what they're doing to warp reality.