(CNSNews.com) – Senate Republican leaders are threatening to block the nominations of President Barack Obama’s health nominees until the Health and Human Services Department drops its “gag order” on private health care companies that prevents them from communicating with senior citizens about the health care reform bill.
HHS told Humana Inc. and other health care companies that contract with Medicare to stop sending information to seniors about how the measure might affect their Medicare benefits - this after Humana Inc. sent a mailer to seniors saying the health care bill could cut their benefits.
In a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and seven other Republican leaders wrote that America’s 11 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage “deserve to be informed of any potential actions” that “could have broad implications on the Medicare program.
Those who signed the letter include Republican Whip Jon Kyl; Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander; Republican Policy Chairman John Thune; Vice Conference Chair Lisa Murkowski; National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn; Sen. Charles Grassley, ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee; and Sen. Mike Enzi, ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“Medicare Advantage Plans and Prescription Drug Plans that provide services through the Medicare program have a constitutional right to provide information about these Medicare programs to their customers,” they added.
HHS “had previously noted that there was no legal authority to justify prohibiting a health plan ‘from informing its members of proposed legislation and exhorting them to express their opinions’ about it,” the letter stated.
In fact, HHS had said that shutting down this type of communication “would violate basic freedom of speech and other constitutional rights of the Medicare beneficiary as a citizen,” the letter stated.
However, the Obama administration reversed that decision, the letter added.
“Your department has done this by imposing an industry-wide gag order without apparent justification or basis in law, contradicting your past public guidance and the plain language and spirit of the First Amendment, among the most sacred tenets of our democracy,” McConnell and his Republican colleagues wrote.
“America’s seniors and the health plans that serve them deserve to have their free speech rights respected. Their rights should not be subject to the whims of any administration, and the health plans that serve them should not be threatened with punishment if they speak out on a matter of public concern simply because the administration disagrees with their position,” they added.
“Until your department rescinds its gag order and allows seniors to receive information about matters before Congress, we will not consent to time agreements on the confirmation of any nominees to your department or associated agencies,” they told Sebelius.