GRITtv with Laura Flanders-Conservatives for Patie...

Yesterday it was the banking lobby; today it’s healthcare. Private companies are determined to beat back reform and the latest to join the fray are the Swift Boaters. You may have heard that six major health insurers have promised to save some $2 trillion over the next decade by scaling back cost increases voluntarily. Paul Krugman has speculated that it may be a sign that even bigwigs in the medical-industrial complex believe change is inevitable and they?d rather be seen as partners than pariahs. But while some private insurers are lining up to cooperate in public, in private there's a very different operation launching. The behind-the-scenes-one is classic Astro-Turf. A group called Conservatives for Patients? Rights has launched what they call ?a massive grassroots effort? to "put a human face on the victims of government healthcare." It's not grassroots, it?s only massive in terms of money, and government healthcare is a made-up target. No such thing is on the table. Who's behind CPR? The group was founded by former hospital CEO Rick Scott and its PR effort is coordinated by CRC Public Relations, the same folks who brought us ?Swift Boat Veterans for Truth? who spread lies about Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry. CPR spent about $600,000 a month on ads in March and April. It?s ratcheting up its buy for May to more than $1 million. Scott is a lawyer with no medical training. He?s no expert in healthcare, but he does know something about healthcare fraud. He was ousted from the Columbia/HCA health care company after a fraud investigation revealed that the company under Scott had over-billed state and federal health plans. Columbia/HCA was fined and forced to pay a record $1.7 billion. The Washington Post ran a piece about Scott (who was also once a partner with George W. Bush in the Texas Rangers). "Scott is using $5 million of his own money and up to $15 million more from supporters to try to build resistance to any government-run program," report...