Consumer Watchdog: UnitedHealth ‘intimidates’ workers with letter-writing campaign

Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group is again dipping its toes in political waters by involving its employees in the health care debate. It emailed its 75,000 workers Tuesday urging them to contact their senators with concerns about health care reform. Form letters provided to employees, obtained by California-based Consumer Watchdog, claim that “Government-run health care will result in millions of Americans not being able to keep their current coverage.” The advocacy group challenges that point and accuses UnitedHealth of intimidating its workers through the campaign.

The email (pdf), headlined “Write Your Senators!,” provides links to the company’s online letter-writing template and offers form letters employees can customize for writing to legislators and to local papers. The communique states that “all activity is voluntary and you may express any position you may have,” but as Judy Dugan of Consumer Watchdog suggests, employees “wouldn’t dare to speak against the company position unless they’ve already got a new job lined up.”

In August, UnitedHealth — one of the country’s largest health insurance providers – sent a letter to employees urging them to write to their representatives about about health care reform and to attend town hall meetings on the topic. One caller to a UnitedHealth health reform hotline was reportedly encouraged to attend a tea party and directed to a listing of events hosted by the rightwing America’s Independent Party.