If only advocates for a single-payer system had the balls, gumption and tactless guile of a major private health insurance company when it comes to getting Max Baucus’ full attention…

WASHINGTON— The government is investigating Louisville-based Humana for allegedly trying to scare seniors with a mailer warning they could lose important benefits under health care legislation in Congress.

The Health and Human Services Department launched its investigation of Humana after getting a complaint from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a senior lawmaker usually viewed as a reliable ally of the insurance industry.

“It is wholly unacceptable for insurance companies to mislead seniors regarding any subject — particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health care reform,” Baucus said Monday, disclosing the HHS investigation. [Courier-Journal]

The mailers are apparently disguised to look like official Humana Medicare communiques — telling seniors that they’ll essentially have no money to pay for their daily Ensure supplements, for example — which is brilliant. But why should Baucus, a health insurance industry darling, bite a hand that feeds him? Because his bill is finished, silly! By handing over the vast majority of the approximately 47 million uninsured future indentured servants to the heath care rolls, Baucus could run through the streets burning a Humana effigy; none of it really matters at this point, they love this guy so much.