If almost on queue, the American Action Network took out an advertisement in the Sunday July 8th Sacramento Bee misleading readers about Medicare while on the front page was an article about how nonprofits such as American Action Network are a shill for large corporation and unions. The story Firms use nonprofits for end run, by Mike McIntire and Nicholas Confessore, detail how these new nonprofits a little more than campaign slush funds for unregulated political advertisements.
What is the real agenda?
The Sacramento Bee advertisement on page A2 paid for by the American Action Network is nothing more than list of misleading statements about the plight of Medicare under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The poorly designed advertisement is little more than a campaign endorsement for Dan Lungren who is running for re-election the 3rd congressional district in California. At the same time it attempts to scare seniors with statements that are pure fiction, “If the Obama government takeover of healthcare is not repealed, seniors across America will suffer.”
Cutting fraud, waste and abuse only helps Medicare
With a $3 million dollar donation from Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company last year, American Action Network is out to scare seniors that the Affordable Care Act will reduce their Medicare benefits. The opposite is true. The ACA put in motion the closing of the Part D Prescription coverage gap or donut hole, initiated no cost preventive office visits to screen for disease, allocates money to fight fraud, waste and abuse and establishes guidelines for Accountable Care Organizations to better manage Medicare patient care between doctors and hospitals.
American Action Network gives nonprofits a black eye
American Action Network has registered as a nonprofit so they don’t have to disclose who their donors are. Because of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision they can advertise on behalf of political candidates with no restriction on how much they spend. The American Action Network and their misleading advertisements are a canker sore on the constitutional right of free speech and democracy.