Remove The CMS Gag Order

Floor Speech

Mr. FLEMING. Mr. Speaker, it was recently reported that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued a gag order on private insurance companies to prevent them from providing information to their beneficiaries regarding the administration's proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage and how the Democrat health reform could take away their current coverage.

The CBO, by the way, agrees with this. That is a fact that coverage is being taken away.

However, the one entity not being affected by this gag order is the AARP, which has been a prime advocate of the Democrats' government takeover of health care. Even as AARP advocates for cutting Medicare Advantage plans by more than $150 billion, an analysis of the organization's operation reveals that it stands to receive tens of millions of dollars at the expense of seniors' medical care. Under the Democrats' plan, seniors are going to have to fund kickbacks to AARP-sponsored plans, and there isn't a single provision attempting to impose any new restrictions on AARP policies.

Did CMS somehow forget to include AARP among the organizations whose First Amendment rights to inform seniors of harmful Medicare provisions were restricted, or did the administration only wish to silence its critics?

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