Dear Editor,
Kansas First district congressional representative Tim Huelskamp received the “Champion of Healthcare Innovative Award,” during April of 2014 from one of the nations’ leading health care lobbying front groups called the (HCL) Health Care Leadership Council. The HCL membership includes the CEO’s of the country’s largest insurers, drug companies, hospital chains and medical device manufacturers.
During the 2009 national discussion over health care reform, HCL initiated a campaign called “Medicare Today” and produced state specific television advertising to encourage citizens to contact their congresspersons to ensure that billions of dollars of Federal government Medicare funding for private insurers is unaffected by the debate.
Wendell Potter, former  Cigna executive-turned whistle blower and author of “Deadly Spin”, continues to speak out on how corporate America is deceiving Americans about health care.
“The campaign of fear, uncertainty and doubt continues today. I know because I participated in many meetings of the Health Care Leadership Council during my years as an insurance industry executive,” said Potter.
Potter, who now serves as the leading spokesperson for The Center for Public Integrity said, “A yearlong investigation has revealed that health insurers may have fleeced taxpayers out of $70 billion in just five years.” You can read more detail by going to Potter’s website: http://www.publicintegrity.org/  
Huelskamp is making a lot of noise in Washington, but he appears to be most proud of his recent award to help the insurance industry in their lobbying efforts. The announcement of the award headlines his webpage. Huelskamp commented, “What an honor to receive this award. I feel it is very important to make sure the United States remains at the forefront of healthcare technology and initiatives.”
Really!
Larry Weigel
Manhattan