Hammering Humana

You’ve been warned: Don’t tug on Superman’s cape. Don’t spit into the wind. And when it comes to health care reform, don’t anger the government.

If you appreciate the raw, naked use of governmental power, then you have a new hero on Capitol Hill—Senator Max Baucus.

Senator Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance committee, has crafted a health care reform bill that would cut $123 billion from Medicare Advantage, an extremely popular program that allows seniors to get additional coverage for things like hearing aids and vision care—things not covered in basic Medicare.

So it’s not surprising that the private insurance company Humana, which offers Medicare Advantage, would send a letter to its customers warning them of the cut.

What is surprising—actually shocking—was the reaction of Senator Baucus. The Wall Street Journal reports that the infuriated Senator “complained to the [Federal] Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which duly ordered Humana to cease and desist. CMS claimed the mailer was ‘misleading and confusing’ and told the company it has opened an official probe” into the letter’s legality.

The only problem is that the letter wasn’t misleading. As National Public Radio reported, “There's no denying that folks enrolled in Medicare Advantage would see reductions under the proposals...Humana does seem to have a point.”

And earlier this week, the Congressional Budget Office told Senator Baucus’s committee that the proposed cuts would result in “lower benefits and some 2.7 million people losing this coverage.”

So it seems that a private insurer doesn’t have to mislead its clients to get investigated by a federal agency. All it has to do torque off a powerful senator.

But what will happen if one day the government itself is in the health care business? Do you think for a moment it could resist the temptation to use its power against its competitors—in this case, private insurers? We already see how Congressional backers of the so-called “government option” are trying to whip up public fury against private insurers.

I don't know the answer. But I know that more government can't be the answer to Health Care, and flexing political muscle against private corporations who "call out" the government is a dangerous road to travel.