"the Lewin Group is wholly owned by UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation's largest insurers."

Turns out that the Lewin Group, a Falls Church, Virginia-based consulting firm whose study on the impact of a public option has been cited by opponents of President Obama’s healthcare initiative, is in fact, owned by a health insurance company, UnitedHealth Group.

In April the group released a study in which they concluded that under the public option, “the number of people with private health insurance would decline by 119.1 million people.”  Since then, the report has been cited ad nauseum in op-ed pages and Senate and House floor speeches.  Time and time again, the group has been referred to as “bipartisan” and “reliable.”  For example, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) called the study the “most comprehensive and reliable study of the public option.”  While the group might very well be “bipartisan,” it’s a far stretch to call their analysis “reliable.”