Friday, September 18, 2009 4:44 PM
Six Health Lobbyists For Every Lawmaker
Talk about a full court press! The health care industry is spending about $1.4 million per day to sway Congress as it mulls reform. That translates to about six lobbyists for every lawmaker, according to the group Common Cause.
The health care industry has also given members of Congress nearly $24 million in campaign contributions this year, on top of the nearly $170 million they donated last election, said the group.
"The public can be forgiven for feeling left out of this debate when the drug, insurance and other health-related companies are financing thousands of lobbyists and multi-million dollar ad campaigns and making generous campaign contributions to get what they want out of health care reform," said Common Cause President Bob Edgar in a statement.
Top recipients of the mega bucks, include (not surprisingly) the Gang of Six -- Senators Max Bauchus, D-Mont., Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., Bill Nelson, R-Fla., and Olympia Snowe, R-Me. Total haul so far in 2009: $6,036,626.
The analysis is based on numbers supplied by the Center for Responsive Politics.
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Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Every dollar squeezed out of Big Pharma and Big Insurance is a dollar less that you'll have to pay either in healthcare costs or in taxes to cover healthcare costs. The two most direct ways to squeeze future profits are allowing Medicare to use its huge bargaining leverage to negotiate lower drug prices, and creating a public insurance option to compete with private insurers and also use its bargaining clout to get lower prices and thereby push private insurers to offer lower rates.Big Pharma and big insurance hate the public insurance option even more than they hate big Medicare discounts.There are some Medicare Advantage plans that will cover you if you buy steroids,of course the cost to the patient varies from plan to plan, with some covering the full cost and others requiring a single co-payment.