(1)
When Republicans who fervently oppose healthcare reform — because if it passes in anywhere near the form that most Democrats are fighting for, grateful Americans will turn even more solidly pro-Democrat and anti-Republican than they already are, and probably for a good long time — are trying to rationalize their opposition, and pretend it’s based on the merits of the healthcare reform proposals currently under consideration rather than pure electoral panic, they are fond of citing the Lewin Group. There was an excellent segment about this on The Rachel Maddow Show last night.

The Lewin Group is invariably represented by Republicans as a nonpartisan group of healthcare experts. The Washington Posts‘s David S. Hilzenrath spilled the beans, though last week.

The political battle over health-care reform is waged largely with numbers, and few number-crunchers have shaped the debate as much as the Lewin Group, a consulting firm whose research has been widely cited by opponents of a public insurance option.

To Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Republican whip, it is “the nonpartisan Lewin Group.” To Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, it is an “independent research firm.” To Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the second-ranking Republican on the pivotal Finance Committee, it is “well known as one of the most nonpartisan groups in the country.”

But this is just a bald-faced lie, what will presumably — given how often Republicans resort to it — come to be known in a few years as a Republicanism. The truth of the matter is that, since 2007, the Lewin Group has been 100% owned by United Healthcare, which just happens to be the largest for-profit insurance company in the U.S.

Generally left unsaid amid all the citations is that the Lewin Group is wholly owned by UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation’s largest insurers.

More specifically, the Lewin Group is part of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth subsidiary…

Well known to be one of the most nonpartisan groups in the country, indeed!

But that’s not all. It may not even be the worst part. This bastion of disinterested healthcare research, which commands the respect of the entire Republican high command, to which said high command looks for healthcare industry number-crunching, is also sullied by the odor of a criminal scandal. Which, strangely enough, had to do with … you’ll never guess … criminally dishonest healthcare industry number-crunching.

… Ingenix, a UnitedHealth subsidiary … was accused by the New York attorney general and the American Medical Association, a physician’s group, of helping insurers shift medical expenses to consumers by distributing skewed data. Ingenix supplied its parent company and other insurers with data that allegedly understated the “usual and customary” doctor fees that insurers use to determine how much they will reimburse consumers for out-of-network care.

In January, UnitedHealth agreed to a $50 million settlement with the New York attorney general and a $350 million settlement with the AMA, covering conduct going back as far as 1994.

Ingenix chief executive Andrew Slavitt said the Ingenix data was never biased, but Ingenix nonetheless agreed to exit that particular line of business.

How telling is it that when Republicans are searching for an authoritative source they can cite when they want to adduce numbers to rationalize resistance to healthcare reform proposals, the best they can do is the Lewin Group, which is part of a company known to have been cooking up healthcare industry numbers for at least 15 years?

They certainly know how to pick ‘em, that’s for sure.

(2)
The Washington Post article quoted above appeared on July 22. The Washington Post is a widely read, widely respected newspaper, whose articles have both reach and impact.

So you’re probably thinking that the pimping of The Lewin Group’s healthcare research by Republicans would have ceased shortly after the story appeared. You’re probably thinking that our ever vigilant media would have stopped facilitating the pimping of The Lewin Group’s healthcare research. And you would, of course, be totally wrong. Because we are the United States of America. With the finest healthcare system in the world (even Rush Bimbaugh said so). And the finest newsmedia, to boot.

So here’s what went down when Republican Representative Tom Price (of Georgia, to give shame where shame is due) appeared on MSNBC‘s Morning Joe on July 24:

PRICE: … In fact, The Lewin Group did a study that demonstrated clearly that more than a hundred million Americans — a hundred million Americans! — will be moved –

BARNICLE: What’s the Lewin Group?

PRICE: It’s a study group. it’s a nonpartisan private study group that looks at public policy issues.

BARNICLE: Who funds them?

PRICE: Who funds them? I think they are a foundation. what they have shown is over 100 million Americans will be forced from private personal insurance to the government-run program. That ought to give pause to everybody. And that’s why we believe we ought to sit down in a bipartisan way and come up with the positive solutions available to us.

You might get the impression that Mike Barnicle isn’t much of a journalist. You might be right. He used to be a columnist for The Boston Globe. That was before he resigned in disgrace ten years ago amid allegations of plagiarism and fabrication. But neither plagiarism nor fabrication nor incompetence comes in the way of MSNBC providing him gainful employment with painful regularity.