Schumer Took a $66k Bundle of Checks From the Health Insurance Industry’s Top Lobbyist

The bundle was given as the health insurance industry was lobbying against Medicare dental, vision, and hearing coverage being included in the Build Back Better Act.

In the third quarter of this year, as the Democratic leaders of Congress were scrambling to decide what to keep in President Biden’s reconciliation package and what to cut, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer accepted a $66,000 bundle of campaign contributions from the head of the health insurance industry’s top lobbying group.

[readsludge.com]

{One of the group’s goals for the Build Back Better Act has been to block a proposal from the Biden White House to add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to Medicare. Most Medicare Advantage plans, such as those offered by Cigna and Aetna, include dental, hearing, and vision benefits, so adding these coverages under traditional Medicare would be a hit to the insurance companies’ competitive advantage against the government. According to Politico, insurance companies were “freaking out” over Biden’s proposal for dental, vision, and hearing Medicare coverage, but they kept it mainly behind the scenes since it would be bad optics to be seen as opposing better health coverage for seniors.}

I didn't see this coming. I'm glad this site makes it so hard to find past post. Or someone would be able to call me a liar. Lets talk about hearing aides. I need to have them for my job as a truck driver. I need them to hear also. Without them I'm as good as deaf.

I heard Biden talking about helping with the high cost of hearing aides one day fairly recently. They aren't cheap by any means! My first pair {mid 90s} cost me just short of 5K. Beltone. I wore them suckers out, basically to obsolete. They got to where I had to actually send them to an independent repair guy in Mo because Beltone wanted so much to fix them, being the technology had changed the last couple of times. Life time warranty actually has its limits. They finally just wore out and weren't getting the job done. So another 5K for another pair. They didn't last anywhere near as long as the others. Not even half the time in which I'm sending them in for repairs. And my first pair went through 8 years of commercial and industry roofing which was hell on them. I didn't even get 8 years on the second pair compared to approximately 20 years. Just recently finding out that as a truck driver I need to have a backup pair, another 5K to be spent I just got the fucking 2nd paired paid off!

Ok Biden. Addressing cheaper hearing aides, as he said, we'd be able to buy them over the counter in stores. This would create competition and lower prices. You know those noise amplifiers you see in magazines and on the Internet, that's his idea of hearing aides. Yea, I've tried as least 2 kinds. They aren't fucking hearing aides! And if you have real hearing issues they'll make your hearing worse. So his idea of a new addition to policy is to apply a flawed technology by throwing your money out to scam companies. Fucking brilliant.

{The pared-down version of the bill that emerged from the Democratic leaders’ negotiations and was put on the House floor does not include dental or vision coverage for Medicare patients. Of the three areas of health care coverage the insurance industry sought to kill, only hearing has so far survived.}

Someone, anyone, fill us in on that.

Asked for comment on the $66,000 bundle of donations from the AHIP lobbyist, a Schumer spokesperson told Sludge that the senator “is one of the Senate’s biggest advocates for Medicare expansion and has been doing everything he can to pass the most robust legislation possible.”

{Schumer’s campaign received many more health insurance industry donations in the third quarter besides the AHIP bundle. AHIP’s PAC gave him the legal maximum of $5,000 on Sept. 30, and health insurance company donations that appear in his quarterly disclosure include those from PACs affiliated with Humana ($5,000), Cigna ($1,500), Molina Healthcare ($5,000), MVP Health Care ($2,500), and more. Many more insurance executives also donated to the senator, including $20,300 from UnitedHealth Group executives like executive vice president and chief financial officer John Rex, and senior vice president of policy and strategy Catherine Anderson.

Also in Schumer’s third quarter lobbyist bundling report are bundles of $37,200 from the PAC of American Health Care Association, a nursing home group, and $46,200 from the American Council Of Life Insurers PAC, a trade association whose hundreds of member companies represent 95% of industry assets. Schumer is up for re-election in 2022.}

Those of you who are his constituents, please get a hold of the Socialist Equality Party and ask them to send you a candidate who really cares! Hell, a republican might even be better for you