They're Running Scared
Posted on August 13th, 2008 by Jason Rosenbaum in Profits Before People
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The insurance industry front group America's Health Insurance Plans is continuing it's "listening" tour on short notice. After a month of silence, they are announcing the 2nd stop in their tour in Detroit. (http://www.americanhealthsolution.org/detroit)
The announcement was sent out an hour ago. The tour stop is today. There is no information on where or when the event will be held.
How can you claim to be listening to the public if you give less than 24 hours notice and no indication where your event is?
As a reminder, here's what happened at AHIP's opening of the listening tour, where Health Care for America Now supporters were out in force:
On top of that, their phone number for comments went straight to voice mail.
Now, the insurance industry continues their "listening" tour by announcing a stop on the day of the event, and not telling the public where or when their event will take place. Whoever actually ends up showing up at the event clearly doesn't represent the American people, as the only folks with advance notice of this event are folks connected with AHIP and the insurance industry.
So, let's make this clear: The insurance industry has launched a "listening tour" with a contact phone number that goes to voicemail and an event only insurance industry insiders (or those on their payroll) can attend.
As usual, the only people the insurance industry is listening to is themselves.
I am disappointed to learn of your critical and uninformed statements regarding the health care roundtable that we recently hosted at Second Ebenezer Church as part of AHIP's Campaign for an American Solutions listening tour.
We have not endorsed the AHIP plan to reform health care, but we were pleased to host their event and we welcomed the fact that health plans are listening to the serious concerns that members of our community have about the cost and accessibility of health care.
I can assure that neither I nor the other participants in the roundtable are in any way "connected" to the insurance industry. As a matter of fact, I explained to the insurance industry representatives that I personally find it very hard to afford my health care coverage.
Moreover, this event was open to the public and we were joined by several members of the local news media who reported on the event, as well as some of our members.
Prior to the event, we held a discussion in which we were joined by many leading local health care officials, including representatives from the Michigan Council on Maternal Health, Cover the Uninsured-Michigan, Detroit Agency on Aging, Detroit NAACP, Detroit Department of Health and Wellness, Detroit Community Health Connection and Voices for Michigan's Children. I trust you would agree that none of the people representing these organizations are "insurance industry insiders."
Your comments are baseless and hurtful to those of us who are working in good faith to serve our community.
We all need to work together to make health care reform a reality for the people of Detroit and all Americans.
Sincerely,
NAD
"Open to the public" and actually open to the public are apparently two different things. Here are the facts:
1. There was no prior notice given about this event, either in a widely distributed press release, information on AHIP's website, or through their email list.
2. When the notice went up on AHIP's website on the day of the event, no location or time information was included. All it said was, "Hey! We're in Detroit!"
So, this event wasn't really "open to the public." You may have let anyone who walked through your doors into the event, but by giving no information and no prior notice, the insurance industry effectively cut off debate.
Trust me, we are in touch with a lot of folks in the Detroit area that would have loved to come to your event if given the chance.
Now, I'm not saying the Second Ebenezer Church was trying to do this, I'm saying you got fooled by the insurance industry. They were the ones who set up and managed the press around this event, and they are the ones who should take the blame.
If you agree with our Statement of Common Purpose and if you are feeling angry about the way the insurance industry treated your Church, feel free to join our coalition and work for real health care reform!
You can sign up at http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/s/organization/
Well, I guess we need to just contact the local press the minute the announcement is made to find out if they are willing to share the "public" information about the location of the event!