We all know how Obama and the Democrats went all out, against every obstacle put up against them, to enact the Health Care Reform Bill known as The Affordable Care Act, euphemistically deemed "Obamacare". What many are not so much aware of is the extent to which the Administration and Congressional Democrats have been willing to go, and have gone, to protect the bill and to build support for it after the fact. This may well include, but is not necessarily limited to, an all out assault on any who might oppose important elements of the bill, including people within the private sector.
The following story is significant because it might well point to an example of the extent to which Obama and his supporters might be willing to go, including abuse of power. I'll just set forth a more or less condensed version of the controversy. To get the full scope, with all its implications, you might want to read the full story at The American Spectator.
The gist of the story involves a woman who on the surface appears to be nothing more than a lowly nun. But oh, what a nun she is! You may have heard of her. Her name is Sister Carol Keehan, and she is also the CEO of a charitable organization called Catholic Health Services, which is a lobbying group for Catholic Hospitals. Her prominence in this story however is based on her support for Obama's health care initiative, and how she brought that support to bear.
You might well remember the story of Representative Bart Stupak, the Michigan House member who initially opposed Obamacare, and then, after much pressure, finally agreed to support it. When he did so, despite his initial objections based on concerns about abortion coverage, it set the stage for other Blue Dog Democrats to fall in line behind him, like so many dominoes.
Sister Carol Keehan is, in fact, the major factor behind Bart Stupak's final decision to vote for Obamacare. For this reason, Sister Carol was one of the guests in attendance at the signing ceremony for the bill, and received as a memento one of the twenty-two ink pens President Obama used to sign the bill into law. She was such an important factor in the final passage of the bill into law, she was written up in Time Magazine, in an article about the 100 most influential people of 2010, by the widow of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Kennedy was another guest at the signing ceremony, and she described Sister Carol's contribution in the most glowing of terms-not just for this particular endeavor, but for her years of work in health care, work that in 2007 put her at the top of the list of important people in health care.
Yes, because of Sister Carol Keehan primarily, Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak relented and agreed to vote for the bill, as did numerous other Blue Dog Democrats-most of whom are now fighting for their political survival to no small extent due to their vote on this bill.
But Sister Carol's contributions don't end there. Before we go into that though, we have to muddle through what amounts to the immediate impact of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, as described in The American Spectator article linked at the start of the post-
Almost immediately -- it didn't take two months much less six -- the White House is confronted with a rapidly accelerating set of unintended consequences spreading across the country. As listed by the Wall Street Journal, those unintended consequences included 2011 premium increases shooting up as high as 9%; "multibillion-dollar corporate writedowns by Verizon, AT&T, Caterpillar and others"; the disruption of insurance markets, a show-down with McDonald's, the imposition of price controls on premiums, insurers withdrawing from Medicare Advantage.
In what appears to have become a pattern, the response from the Obama Administration has been repeatedly swift and harsh -- compared by one critic as an episode straight out of the Sopranos, the famous HBO mobster series.
The corporate writedowns -- done in compliance with federal law -- resulted in angry phone calls from then-Obama White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and colleague Valerie Jarrett to corporate CEO's and the heads of the Washington corporate offices of those involved. Congressman Henry Waxman threatened a congressional investigation into those companies whose obedience to the law put them at odds with the actual results of ObamaCare. Notification by insurers that rates were being forced up by ObamaCare resulted in a threatening letter from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to insurers warning that such candor would not be tolerated -- at risk of not being allowed to participate in a future government-run health care exchange for insurers.
Unfortunately, many people involved at the receiving end of Obama's "reforms" have opted for the easy way out-by doing just that, getting out and cutting their losses while they still can.
Such seems to be the case of Mercy Health Partners decision to sell three Scranton Pennsylvania area hospitals, all of which comprise parts of two different Congressional districts, with seats currently being held by two gravely embattled House Democrats-Kanjorski and Carney. The three hospitals up for sale are-Mercy Hospital in Scranton; Mercy Special Care Hospital in Nanticoke; and the Mercy Tyler Hospital in Tunkhannock.
The announcement of the pending sale was release by Mercy Health Partners CEO Kevin Cook. And here is where it just starts to get interesting. Back to the linked article.
The Sisters of Mercy had opened Mercy Hospital in Scranton, a major facility for the city, in 1917 -- 93 years earlier. Inevitably it drew media attention. Which is where the plot thickens.
WNEP TV (Channel 16) reporter Jon Meyer filed a story about the sale at 4:40 pm. that afternoon. WNEP TV anchor Paula Giangiacomo led the story on the air by saying that "one big" reason for the sale "is the health care reform bill signed into law this year." Mercy Health Partners CEO Cook was interviewed on camera along with Sister Marie Parker. When Meyer asked Cook if ObamaCare had anything at all to do with the sale, the CEO replied:
"Health care reform is absolutely playing a role. Was it the precipitating factor in this decision? No, but was it a factor in our planning over the next five years? Absolutely."
To make a long story short, this statement by Cook led to a second statement by him which amounted to a clarification. There were many factors involved in the decision, and though he listed some, The Affordable Care Act this time around did not make the cut. It was not even mentioned in the second statement. But even this wasn't the end. A few days later, Cook released yet a third statement, in which he stated, unequivocally, that the decision to sell the three Scranton area hospitals had nothing whatsoever to do with the Affordable Care Act, or any of its provisions, in any way.
The amazing thing about this post-retraction clarification was, it was preceded by a statement, issued by Sister Carol Keehan, to the effect that any claims made involving the Affordable Care Act in any decision to sell the three hospitals was nothing but an attempt to politicize the process. Again, from The American Spectator-
Mysteriously, the very same day, came this statement, also released on the PR Newswire services. Out of the blue, suddenly released by Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association (CHA), the headline was sharp and pointed. The headline?
Alarmist News Reports About Catholic Hospitals Are False; CHA Supports Difficult Decision by Mercy Health Partners.
In a fury that fairly leaps from the page, Sister Carol says immediately that "false motives" have been assigned to the proposed sale of the three Mercy hospitals. Says the good Sister: "Reports that health reform is the primary motive behind the sale are completely false, misleading and politically motivated. Deliberations to sell the facilities began well before the Affordable Care Act became law and did not hinge on enactment of the legislation."
It was after this that the CEO issued first his second, and then his third statement, the later of which was an out-and-out retraction of the first statement.
Why? We can only conjecture at this point, but its fairly easy to connect the dots. Scranton is a heavily Catholic district, and home to three Catholic Hospitals, founded by the Sisters of Mercy, which date back to 1917. These three hospitals, which do not provide abortion services, are now on the auction block and may well be purchased by an entity or entities that might well provide such services. Scranton is also the home to not only two embattled House Democrats, but also to Senator Bob Casey, another Democrat who was elected on the strength of his pro-Life conservative credentials, and who is up for re-election himself in two years. Finally, it looks like the problems with these three hospitals can be traced in large measure back to the unintended consequences of the passage of The Affordable Care Act, which both House members as well as Senator Casey supported.
What is not known yet is what kind of pressure was brought to bear on CEO Kevin Cook and his associates, or how it was brought to bear on him, or by who. Sister Carol Keehan seems to be the front woman for someone else, the public face who is supposed to assuage the concerns of a Catholic constituency, while other shadowy forces lurk in the background pulling her strings.
If this story does break wide open, however, it might have far-ranging implications beyond just the Scranton area. It might explode onto the national scene as a harbinger of things yet to come, and lead to the crushing defeat of yet more congressional, and possibly Senate Democrats.
The American Spectator has been getting so many hits over this story, they have been crashing. You can also read the story, reprinted in its entirety by Pat Dollard.
You can also read of the controversy caused by Sister Carol's involvement in the health care bill in this piece by the Catholic News Agency.
