California Democrats haven’t managed to convince the Attorney General’s Office that a Republican knockoff of the Covered California web site needs to come off line.
Attorney General Kamala Harris several weeks ago forced the removal of 10 private health insurance websites that “misled Californians by imitating Covered California.”
The GOP-backed Covering Health Care California site was produced by Assembly Republicans, but its political leanings aren’t disclosed on the home page. Other “inside” pages have a small link to the Assembly Republican Caucus web site, without explanation as to the relationship. There also is a disclaimer that suggests the site is a product of the the California State Assembly.
After complaints were raised in early December, a logo link was provided to the real Covered California web site.
Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, called it “a deceptive and possibly illegal web site that has been posted at taxpayer expense.”
“This web site represents an action that obviously seeks to deceive Californians about important and likely lifesaving services,” Gomez wrote in a letter to the California Assembly Rules Committee. “I condemn this practice.”
While the GOP site fails to make its agenda clear to the casual reader, it does not by and large imitate the look and feel of the current Covered California web site. It does, however, have graphic links on the home page similar to those used in previous versions of the state Obamacare exchange site.
The sites shut down by the Attorney General’s office were mostly operated by private health insurance brokers. They were told to turn over URLs similar to the one used by Covered California.
One of the offending web sites was called CoveredCalifornia.com
“These web sites fraudulently imitated Covered California in order to lure consumers away from plans that provide the benefits of the Affordable Care Act,” Attorney General Harris said.
(Editor’s note: This independent news web site, Affordable Health California, includes several clear and prominent disclaimers noting it is not affiliated with the government. It does not sell insurance and is ad supported.)
Another Southern California lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, said in a letter to the state attorney general: “The domain name CoveringHealthCareCA.com is very similar to the state’s official marketplace web site.
“Like the other web sites your office shut down, the domain name alone could lead consumers to believe they are on the official site, rather than an imposter.”
Assemblywoman Connie Conway, R-Tulare, said the GOP health insurance site wasn’t coming down. “Our web site simply provides Californians with facts about federal health care law,” she said in a letter to the Sacramento Bee that referred to “shrill calls for censorship.” Having the Covered California site as a sole source of information about Obamacare in California “would leave consumers without important information,” said Conway (pictured).
She was responding to a Bee editorial that said: “Click on the Assembly Republican website, and it proceeds to scare the bejesus out of people, especially seniors and young people, with highly selective information and omissions.”
One of the GOP site’s main themes is the tax increases it attributes to the Affordable Care Act. It also provides a calculator for penalties due if people do not sign up for health insurance as required under Obamacare’s “individual mandate.”
Paul Song, executive chairman of the progressive California-based group Courage Campaign, said: “Republicans in Sacramento have wasted taxpayer dollars building a fake web site in an attempt to sow confusion and fear, in a futile attempt to discredit the law.”
A 2012 state law makes it illegal for any individual or entity to claim to provide services on behalf of the California Health Benefit Exchange.
The GOP site has been up since summer, but the current dispute apparently was triggered when GOP legislators sent fliers to constituents directing them to the site as a resource.
California Democratic Party chairman John Burton not surprisingly saw a cynical political play in the site: “Developing and promoting a bogus web site to lure consumers away from the real www.CoveredCA.com amounts to denying Californians affordable health coverage — which appears to be the GOP’s central organizing principle these days.”
It is real sad that such misleading representatives are allowed to serve. It is even more disturbing that they use taxpayer dollars to spread inaccurate information about healthcare.