Reuters Now An Obama Attack Dog?

Yesterday there was much ado about a story claiming that Wellpoint, a health insurance company which includes the Blue Cross/Blue Shield brand in 15 states, was dropping the coverage of women who were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Wellpoint released a press release citing the inaccuracies in the Reuters report.

So what does Reuters do? What any good news agencies would do, and that is correct the story.

Sorta. When browsing the Reuters web site I found this description of the updated story.

* Corrected: WellPoint routinely targets breast cancer patients
* ... all references to Robin Beaton in first paragraph and throughout to reflect that the insurance company that canceled her policy was not a WellPoint subsidiary). ...
* Thursday, 22 Apr 2010 02:05pm EDT

The funny thing is however when I click on the link to see the correction there is no mention of what was done to correct the story and instead they simply removed the information with no further explanation.

Today our wonderful HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is continuing her assault against Wellpoint. Remember Alinsky's Rule for Radical. Identify an enemy, isolate and attack. It seems in this whole debate over health care Wellpoint has been the designated whipping boy. Partly because last year when the debate over the nationalized health care was heating up Wellpoint had the audacity to provide the administration with exactly what they wanted. The congress and the administration asked Wellpoint to crunch the numbers and project what the cost of insurance premiums would be under the current legislation. Well congress didn't like the numbers but Wellpoint CEO Angela Braly stood firm. We all know how liberals view strong women who oppose them and so Angela and her corporation have now become Public Enemy #1 in the eyes of this administration.

The Reuters story is falling apart but one has to wonder what would have started them on the path to doing an investigative piece against Wellpoint. The basis of the story is relevant and one that I think should be looked into. All I am asking is that when you do your reporting do it factually and leave your pre-conceived notions at home. Also before you single out a business for abuse you just might want to make sure you have the right company.

For healthcare the enemy is Wellpoint and for the financial reform it is Goldman Sachs. One has to wonder who is in the crosshairs for the Cap and Trade imperative and who can they make an enemy out of on immigration. The pattern is pretty clear though. Attack the heavy hitters in a certain sector of the business world. Class warfare at it's best and the private sector had better start getting some skin in the game or it is going to be game over for the private sector.

H/T to Politico for the HHS letter

Conflict Of Interest? What Conflict Of Interest?

Susan Bayh an issue in fight over health care
President Barack Obama called Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh to the Oval Office on July 17 for a one-on-one meeting about health-care reform, Democrat to Democrat.

The left-leaning advocacy group Move On.org recently called on Bayh to support a new government health insurance plan.

And the right-leaning group Conservatives for Patients' Rights has urged Bayh to oppose a public health plan.

But for Bayh, health care isn't just the latest high-stakes political fight in Congress. It's also a substantial part of his family's income.

As the debate over health-care reform intensifies, Bayh's wife is receiving lucrative payouts from some of the companies that could be most affected by that legislation.

Bayh contends the $2.1 million that his wife, Susan, earned from public health-care companies from 2006 to 2008 represents no conflict of interest. Questions persist, however, for at least two reasons. First, Evan Bayh has been unclear about his positions on many issues related to health-care reform. Second, there's the timing of Susan Bayh's rapid rise into corporate governance.

Susan Bayh, who was a midlevel lawyer for the politically active Eli Lilly and Co. while her husband was governor of Indiana, did not serve on the board of a single public health-care company until it was clear her husband was about to ascend to the U.S. Senate. Only one month before Evan Bayh was elected to the Senate in a landslide vote, his wife was appointed to serve on the board of what would become the nation's largest health insurance company -- and arguably the company with the most at stake in the health-care reform debate.

Within a few years, numerous companies recruited her, and she eventually served on the boards of eight companies. At least one of them asked her to reduce the number of boards she served on, apparently because she was spread too thin to be effective.

Adding to speculation about a connection between her board memberships and her husband's office is Susan Bayh's unwillingness to discuss the matter, including for this story. She has declined several requests for comment on her corporate interests, making it difficult to tell where those interests end.

[....]

Where there's smoke, you usually have some fire.

Helluva lot of smoke here.


Read it all at The IndyStar