Corporate execs are pressuring employees to take action on health-care reform on company's behalf.

TPM:

It's happened in earlier Washington battles where powerful business interests have been threatened: corporate executives pressuring their employees into taking action on behalf of the firm's perceived political interests.

And now it's happening on health-care reform.

Employees of Express Scripts, a St. Louis-based pharmacy benefit manager that's ranked 115 in Fortune's rankings of America's largest corporations, on Monday received an email from the firm's CEO, George Paz. Titled "Take Action: Your Voice Matters on Healthcare Reform," the email, obtained by TPMmuckraker, denounces the "rush to pass legislation that could fundamentally alter our current system without a full understanding of the costs and consequences of those changes."

It then directs employees to a company web page which allows them to send an email to members of Congress, under the heading "Concerns With Health Care Reform." That form email to lawmakers appears to come from an ordinary citizen, giving no indication that the sender works for a company that would be directly affected by reform.

Here's the full text of the email that Express Scripts employees received:

FROM: George Paz, Chairman & CEO
DATE: Aug. 3, 2009
SUBJECT: Take Action: Your Voice Matters on Healthcare Reform
Congress is considering a significant overhaul to the country's healthcare system. There seems to be a rush to pass legislation that could fundamentally alter our current system without a full understanding of the costs and consequences of those changes.

We believe there are significant issues to be addressed with our current healthcare system, but we also believe:

* Reforms should build on the successes of the current employer-based system.

* Policies should actually lower healthcare costs.

* And, in this economic environment, we should be particularly concerned about additional costs, public or private.

Healthcare is a vital issue that affects everyone. With so much at stake, our elected officials need to hear from you. We've set up a website to make it easy for you to send a letter electronically to your senators and representative asking them to get healthcare reform right.

Thank you for taking the time to do this. Your voice matters to your elected officials.

Update: Here is another... Hat tip TPM:

Last month, as the Post Standard of Syracuse, New York reports, David Klein, CEO of the health insurer Excellus BlueCross BlueShield emailed employees to ask them to fill out postcards to New York's senators, urging them to oppose the creation of a public option.

Klein's email warned that such a plan would destroy the private insurance market.

"[O]ur livelihood depends on health-system reform that achieves the right balance between what government can do and what private plans do best," he wrote.

TPMmuckraker obtained a screen-shot of the email.