Coverage & Access | Conservative Group Combines Membership Dues With Sale of Health Insurance Policies

Freedom Works, a conservative grass-roots organization formerly known as Citizens for a Sound Economy, has garnered thousands of dollars and thousands of members by combining membership dues with the sale of health insurance policies, the Washington Post reports. Medical Savings Insurance, headed by prominent Republican businessman J. Patrick Rooney, sold high-deductible health insurance policies and tax-free health savings plans to buyers, who were asked to sign a form to join Freedom Works, headed by former House majority leader Richard Armey (R-Tex.). A series of letters between CSE Vice President Ann House Quinn, Medical Savings President Randal Suttles and Rooney "revealed that insurance policy holders' names would be rented out as CSE members." The "obscure arrangement" is currently the subject of a Florida class-action lawsuit against Medical Savings Insurance, according to the Post. Many members said they were enrolled in the political organization unknowingly when they agreed to purchase a health insurance plan. Louis Silber, a lawyer involved in the class-action suit said "we have clearly concluded these folks had no idea what Citizens for a Sound Economy was." He added, "They had no idea where their money was going." Critics say the actions were intended to "inflate" the organization's membership numbers and its "bottom line." Over the five and a half years the organization collected dues, it gathered $638,040 dollars. However, Freedom Works officials defended their actions, saying the insurance sales "are just another way for grassroots groups to garner members and are no different from the activities of such giants as AARP," the Post reports. Kent Lassman, vice president for strategy at Freedom Works, said, "I have every confidence that new members to FreedomWorks know what we're about and what that relationship means to them" (Weisman, Washington Post, 7/23).

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