Dems Tip Their Cards on Health Care and Their Hat to the Insurance Lobby
Posted on 10. Jan, 2010 by James in American Politics
The invitation below came from an article in the Washington Examiner (the entire article is linked below). A who’s who of the insurance and pharmaceutical lobby stepped up to the plate to help Martha Coakley with a high priced fundraiser. In a battle to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate and presumably maintain the 60th vote in a filibuster-proof Senate, Coakley is facing increased competition from Republican Scott Brown.
It is more than healthcare that is driving the poll numbers (as close as 1 point in some polls) in Massachusetts, and Coakley had recently run into fund raising problems prior to the healthcare lobby riding to the rescue. However, the race is shaping up to be an early referendum on the brand of healthcare reform that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi have so far kept hidden from the public. Being such a referendum and listening to the rhetoric from the White House and Congress, it would follow that Big Pharma and Big Insurance would be out to sink Coakley’s bid. Not so.
Here are some highlights from The Examiner’s Timothy P. Carney:
“22 names on the host committee–meaning they raised $10,000 or more for Coakley–17 are federally registered lobbyists, 15 of whom have health-care clients. Of the other five hosts, one is married to a lobbyist, one was a lobbyist in Pennsylvania, another is a lawyer at a lobbying firm, and another is a corporate CEO. Oh, and of course, there’s also the political action commitee for Boston Scientific Corporation.”
“All the leading drug companies have lobbyists on Coakley’s host committee: Pfizer, Merck, Amgen, Sanofi-Aventis, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Astra-Zeneca, and more”
“On the insurance side of things, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, HealthSouth, and United Health all are represented on the host committee.”
In light of such support for Coakley from the left’s “bad guys,” it is not hard to understand the Administration and Congress’s decision to break a promise to broadcast the healthcare debate. What has been said publicly by the President is that we will have a chance to see who is supporting Big Health Care and Big Drug companies. Well, the spin doctors have made sure that we will never see which Democrats in Congress are directly supporting those groups, but we now know that the industry lobbyists and their money are squarely behind President Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi.
From The Examiner and Carney:
Here are some of Coakley fundraiser hosts with some of their current health care clients:
- Thomas Boggs, Patton Boggs: Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Chuck Brain, Capitol Hill Strategies: Amgen, BIO, Merck, PhRMA
- Susan Brophy, Glover Park Group: Blue Cross, Pfizer
- Steven Champlin, Duberstein Group: AHIP, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis
- Licy Do Canto, Raben Group: Amgen
- Gerald Cassidy, Cassidy & Associates: U. Mass Memorial Health Care
- David Castagnetti, Mehlman, Vogel, Castagnetti: Abbot Labs, AHIP, Astra-Zenaca, General Electric, Humana, Merck, PhRMA.
- Steven Elmendorf, Elmendorf Strategies: Medicines Company, PhRMA, United Health
- Shannon Finley, Capitol Counsel: Amgen, Astra-Zeneca, Blue Cross, GE, PhRMA, Sanofi-Aventis.
- Heather Podesta, Heather Podesta & Partners: Cigna, Eli Lilly, HealthSouth
- Tony Podesta, Podesta Group: Amgen, GE, Merck, Novartis.
- Robert Raben, Raben Group: Amgen, GE.
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