Karen Ignagni

Richard Umbdenstock

Jeff Kindler

Stephen Hemsley

George Halvorson

Jay Gellert

Thomas Priselac

Richard Clark

Wayne Smith

Rick Smith (not sure if this is the right guy–an educated guess)

He laughed…but I was serious.

I’ll go in my own style, when I choose to go, in a beautiful and spiritual place.

@jawbone at 70–

Obama has been deliberatly vague, in my view, and the reason for that became clear after he finally released the names of those attending meetings at the WH: insurance/pharm execs.

From a letter sent to CREW:

CREW, the org that filed suit via Freedom of Information Act, received a letter with very vague details of who spoke with the President:

–Bill Tauzin, Mar. 5, May 19, June 2, June 24

–Karen Ignagni, Mar. 5, 6, 11, and June 30

–Richard Umbdenstock, Feb. 4, Feb. 23, Mar. 5, 25, 30, April 6, May 22

–J. James Rohack, March 25, June 22, June 24

–William Wheldon, May 12

–Jeff Kindler, March 5, May 6, June 2

–Stephen Hemsley, May 15 and 22

–Angela Braly, Feb. 13

–George Halvorson, March 27 and June 5

–Jay Gellert, Feb. 10, March 11 and 20

–Thomas Priselac, April 3

–Richard Clark March 24

–Wayne T. Smith, June 4

–Rick Smith, May 19 and June 2

The letter also notes these folks attending a May 11th meeting:

Tauzin, Ignagni, Umbdenstock, Rohack, Kindler, Halvorson, Gellert, Priselac, David Nexon, Rick Smith.

~~~~~~

Billy Tauzin immediately leaped out at me–he was the Big Pharma hack that pushed through favorable legislation that benefitted Big Pharma, and then left his Congressional post to accept employment with them.

Karen Ignagni is a healthcare industry LOBBYIST. ’nuff said.

Richard Umbdenstock is a LOBBYIST for the American Hospital Association.

James Rohack is president of the AMA, which has fought tooth and nail against single payer.

William Wheldon

Jeff Kindleris CEO of Pfizer

Stephen Hemsley is CEO of United Health Group. As seen in this article, he was implicated in shady stock practices. Hmmmm…

Angela Braly is CEO of Wellpoint Healthcare. I can’t get a good read on her, but it is noted that she was responsible for a Medicare processing unit.

George Halvorson, CEO of Kaiser Permanante. This blog has some enlightening comments.

Jay Gellert, CEO of HealthNet. Note the irony in this paragraph:

Health Net is among the nation’s largest publicly traded managed health care companies and is currently ranked #165 on the 2009 Fortune 500 list of corporations. Health Net’s mission is to help people be healthy, secure and comfortable.

Thomas Priselac is CEO of Cedars-Sinai Health System. This site highlights him as a speaker. Note that it’s in conjunction with Forbes and the subtitle: Value, Opportunity, and Economic Growth.

~~~~

Notes about the attendees are mine.

Section 1233 of the House-drafted legislation encourages health care providers to provide their Medicare patients with counseling on ‘the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration’ and other end of life treatments, and may place seniors in situations where they feel pressured to sign end of life directives they would not otherwise sign.

Yep. Better to “not tell the terminally ill that they might die”, either. After all, they might ask about their rights to have no life extending interventions, the bastards. Funny how the GOP thinks “informed consent” is “pressure”? Of course, keeping the elderly (or brain dead individuals) perpetually on an IV drip plays well to both their base, but also to the hospitals that will get their geld from the taxpayer or the families of the victim, no matter what. I never heard of Catholic hospitals or Evangelical charities offering to pick up the tab of life-extension care for all people in a vegetative state.

In fact, the GOP seems to think that telling anyone anything about their health care options is terrible (particularly women, children and the elderly).

First and foremost, we already have rationed care. If you don’t have health insurance, than outside of emergency care, good luck.

Second, hospice has become a cash cow. Now, I know a lot of caring folk who work for hospice, but hospice today is not what hospice was ten years ago. Think about it; why are there so many of them? Because they have been allowed to become for profit corporations, indeed HMOs, and they make a lot of money by providing minimal service compared to what they did ten years ago.

Third, yes, some grandmas need to be allowed to die.

Euthanasia? Not at all.

Are we talking about the demented grandma who still enjoys a good joke even if she won’t remember it in five minutes? Not at all. She passes the Hershey bar test; if she can enjoy the moment in the here and now and is still enthused about life, she deserves all the medical and psychological support we can give her.

What about the grandma, where nobody is home? Doesn’t recognize anyone, doesn’t enjoy the joke in the moment, doesn’t converse in any meaningful way, there just is now one at home anymore. Going to keep giving her Aricept because the advertisement says it is the only medication clinically proven the help even in the later stages of Alzheimer’s? (What rubbish.) Euthanasia? No. Discontinuing her medications artificially keeping her alive? Yes. Continuing the medications keeping her comfortable, of course.

Then there is the grandma who is ready to go. She has lived her life, is tired, not depressed, and is ready to transition to the other side. Cognizant and aware, can make an informed decision, and just wants to be comfortable as she makes that transition.

Folks, these are not difficult to differentiate. Of course if there is a question, one goes with the life preserving alternative.

Food for thought.

thank you.