Revealed: millions spent by lobby firms fighting Obama health reforms

[kpete]

Source: Guardian UK


Revealed: millions spent by lobby firms fighting Obama health reforms

Six lobbyists for every member of Congress as healthcare industry heaps cash on politicians to water down legislation

America's healthcare industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to block the introduction of public medical insurance and stall other reforms promised by Barack Obama. The campaign against the president has been waged in part through substantial donations to key politicians.

Supporters of radical reform of healthcare say legislation emerging from the US Senate reflects the financial power of vested interests ‑ principally insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms and hospitals ‑ that have worked to stop far-reaching changes threatening their profits.

The industry and interest groups have spent $380m (£238m) in recent months influencing healthcare legislation through lobbying, advertising and in direct political contributions to members of Congress. The largest contribution, totalling close to $1.5m, has gone to the chairman of the senate committee drafting the new law.

A former member of Bill Clinton's cabinet says fears that the industry could throw its money behind the populist rightwing backlash against public insurance have scared the Obama White House into pulling back from the most significant reforms in return for healthcare companies not trying to scupper the entire legislation.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/01/lobbyists-millions-obama-healthcare-reform

[tosh]

1. 6:1 - FTS!!! K&R * 10,000!!!

[alllyingwhores]

44. "...says fears that the industry could throw its money behind the populist right wing backlash..."

The source (DLCer, of course) consciously covers up the idea that the the populist right wing backlash was wholly manufactured by the said industry owned GOP and DLC.

"...oh, we really really really want to pass a meaningful public option bill just like we promised--it's just the gosh darn republicans, I mean right wing populist movement...yeah, that's right--we know that 70% of americans want the public option...we would if not for the...

GO F__K YOURSELVES you bought and paid for, triangulating DLC scum!

[truedelphi]

48. What you say.

Agree totally. And cannot add a thing, I get so mad when I read how bought out these people are.

[scentopine]

49. I sent a barn burner to DLC scumbags. Unprincipaled whores...

out of phase - they thought they could stay relevant by reinventing the democratic party as the neo-neo-conservative movement but they are so out of phase that at the time they need to be building on momentum of outrage and mandate for change, they are shoving George Bush and the Reagan free-marketeers down our throat.

Triangulating SOBs. A term I have not heard in years as I designed high-tech radio direction finders at one time, way back.

We need a new opposition party. A real political party for people of the united states not corporations of the united states.

[wordpix]

51. + 1,000,000

[wordpix]

59. "Baucus took $1.5m from the health sector for his political fund in the past year."

"RW populist backlash"---yeah, right. :crazy:

The "backlash" is whipped up by the insurance/health care industries and their FOX News puppets, and fueled by BRIBES to senators and congressmen, the other puppets.

Democracy is dead with this system. :puke:

[jillan]

2. A HUGE Kick and Rec and a thank you to the Guardian for putting the truth in print.

[tomm2thumbs]

3. seems we need to rely on the Brits for news since our media is in bed with Health Corporations

where's our 4th branch of government - I guess there's more money in getting paparazzi photos of celebrity vaginas and chasing down scandals than real journalism on policy - especially health care corruption, the folks pouring millions into ads on TV and in print in order to cover their profit bases, and politicians who make this all possible.

The main stream Press has lost credibility.

[Ignis]

6. +1, Sad but true. (nt)

[Blue_Tires]

39. very true

British and Canadian news seem to tell me so much more -- once I went to them, I haven't turned back...

[Capn Sunshine]

4. No surprise, this

nice to see it in black and white. Well known the healthcare lobby spends in excess of ONE POINT FOUR MILLION PER DAY FIGHTING THE PUBLIC OPTION. That's what the "free market" really means: spend millions you suck out of the public not on healthcare but to fight threats to the bilions of extra profit drained from the public; money that should be spent on healthcare.

[barbtries]

10. do you mind

if i quote you on facebook? i couldn't put it better myself.

[thecrow]

30. But 300 someodd million? That's a drop in the bucket to them

They are making hundreds of BILLIONS off of our misery.

Where is our huge march?
I thought by now we would be literally camped out on Independence Mall with torches and pitchforks.

All that's left to do now is not pay the mandate, not pay the fine and then go to jail.







Edited to remove the fact that I don't know what day it is anymore

[SandWalker1984]

5. Congress & the White House have sold out - so why are we still trying to pass health care reform?

Why should we support giving these mega monsters 500 billion more dollars so they grow even stronger, buying even more members of Congress in the future?

Obama spent the entire summer, including crucial August, hiding out, refusing to defend single payer or a strong, Medicare-style public option to counter the obviously corporate manufactured tea bagger protests in Washington and at the town hall meetings.

Enough is enough!

We've been sold out. By Obama. By most of the Democrats in Congress.

If they can't do the right thing with the majority they have in Congress now, then there's too much corporate money & influence in the political system to rationally achieve true, meaningful health care reform.

I'm not buying the excuses anymore. I wanted health care reform like Obama promised us in the campaign. Not this corporate sham.

Kill the bill rather than let them kill us with their corporate care.

[nightrain]

8. yep. Let these crappy bills die. Then, do campaign reform and start over with real healthcare

provision.

[dotymed]

17. A perfect solution.

I think we need to set up "citizen tribunals" to get
publicly financed elections passed. If we got it passed, and
we would as long as the congress stayed out of it, Universal
Healthcare would be a breeze. Because that is what the people
want, and the newly, citizen elected congress, would represent
the citizens or perish...what a great nation we could be....

[dotymed]

15. No doubt,

I would rather see no "healthcare (wealthcare) bill"
than one that is a give-a way to the corporations. No more
corporate give a ways, we are sick of this shit. Give us a
damned job instead. Every other "civilized" nation
has some type of "universal care", just more proof
that we are not civilized.

[LiberalArkie]

23. We need to support the bill because of all the poor starving CEO' s

[wordpix]

52. and some of the poor widdle CEO's have wost their jobs with their financial meltdown

:nopity:

[DFW]

7. This is not 1994 any more

If it gets reported in the Guardian, it's reported in the USA ten minutes later.

The excuses for ignoring it or claiming ignorance no longer ring true.

If Baucus wants to claim he is innocent of accepting bribes, he may get away with it
in the strictest of legal terms, but in the court of public opinion, he'd be on knees
pleading for clemency if his financial benefactors hadn't already paid for his pardon.

[moonbatmax]

9. Of course, we know where all that money came from in the first place:

Our own damn pockets.

If all the money these insurance companies spend on lobbyists and PR
actually went to cover the insurance claims they're supposed to,
maybe we wouldn't have quite as big a problem as we do, maybe?

I wish we could "deduct" that percentage from the premiums we pay.

It's criminal. Just plain criminal.

[RedCloud]

11. Exactly. They pass the cost of their crap right on us!

[Thornleylv]

12. Makes you wonder

How are the insurance companies going
to make all that money back??


<>

[wordpix]

60. answer: ORDER any American without health care insurance to pay for it to the corps.

Easy answer.

These guys are so transparent.

[Xicano]

13. Corporate Wars...

Washington is nothing but a corporate battlefield and the news media is nothing more than a version of ESPN covering the political sports arena.

[fasttense]

14. If Obama had pushed forward Single Payer,

then we might all be rallying in the streets to try and get it passed for everyone. Instead he gives us this watered down, crappy mandated requirement. How in the heck are we suppose to get excited over the requirement to buy crappy private insurance or face prison time? Can you get a thrill from the idea that only 5% of us will be able to buy into a public option? Does it turn your head to know that in 3 years we may trigger a chance to buy into a cost effective public option?

Obama lost a great opportunity to push through Single Payer.

It seems to me the Democratic Party makes a fine art out of ignoring their base.

[katandmoon]

19. +1

[ChiciB1]

29. I've Been Feeling This All Along, But WAS Willing To Wait & See...

Sort Of! Now, I no longer have any FAITH, lost HOPE a long time ago... and what I HAD WISHED for seems to be DEAD!

How can THIS country and all of it's people let this stuff keep going on??? I think most of us have called, written, signed petitions and did what was expected from us, simply by sitting at home through our PC's, and I don't think we've gotten ANYWHERE!!

So, we will sit and wonder even more and simply ask more questions! Yep, so many other countries look at us and can't figure it out, now I WONDER if they aren't just LAUGHING at us!!

I have to leave here for now, I can't take anymore of this bad news! I can't even formulate my thoughts into real sentences! But we are getting ROYALLY screwed and still NOTHING happens!

I AM now seriously disappointed with THIS administration and the Democratic Party for letting this happen!

[NikolaC]

16. K&R

It just makes me ill to think about how much of that money could have gone to pay the claims that they deny for ridiculous reasons.

[eagertolearn]

27. And how many people have died and lost loved ones because

of this lobbying and rich CEO's. On another topic how do we get these damn drug companies from advertising? If people have problems they can look it up on the computer. I can't stand watching TV because the drug advertisements. My kids are going to think that that everyone needs a pill for sex, sleep etc... Lets put that money instead into discounts for people who can't afford their drugs they need to live.

[katandmoon]

18. And in other news...sun rises in the east and sets in the west!

[Triana]

20. f*ck the health care companies. Obama should have ZERO tolerance for them

and their crap. He should have told them to go to Hell right out the gate.

[husky92]

21. Where is the Investigative Media????

When I read this I ask the question...where the hell is the media?

I really wonder if all of these entities have also greased the palms of the major media players. We all know Fox is in their corner, but what about many of the others. It seems only people like Olberman and Maddow would expose this. People ought to know about this scam.

Truly sad that it has come to this, but it is no surprise at all.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

22. That's a lot of free speech!

[fascisthunter]

24. the Faux Teabagger/Birther/Anti Health Reform Crowd

trying to pose as a legitimate populist uprising. The GOP sure knows how to "bite" from legitimate movements, to disguise their own manufactured ones.

[Douglas Carpenter]

25. kick and recommended

[DropshipReview]

31. Good links

These are good links. I appreciate

[L0oniX]

26. Don't worry about what they spend ...they'll just jack up prices to make up for it and we will pay.

[KansDem]

28. K&R at $464,000 *a day*

It appears the American Congress doesn't' represent the American people...:(

[MARALE]

32. K&R N/T

[Romulox]

33. And how much have they spent lobbying FOR a public mandate, hmmm?

Robert Reich, the labour secretary in the Clinton administration, says the Obama White House, mindful of how the health industry killed off Clinton's attempts at reform, has grown so fearful of industry money that it has quietly reached agreement to pull back from price caps and public health insurance.

"The White House made a Faustian bargain with big pharma and big insurance, essentially scuttling both of these profit-squeezing mechanisms in return for these industries' agreement not to oppose healthcare legislation with platoons of lobbyists and millions of dollars of TV ads."

[RaleighNCDUer]

34. You know, if the millions the insurance companies spent fighting

insurance reform was spent providing services to policy holders, the reform movement would be a LOT smaller.

[newtothegame]

35. Not surprising. Millions spent by both sides. n/t

[bkkyosemite]

36. These so called lobbyists and those that take their BRIBES need to be arrested for bribing the

peoples government.

[wordpix]

53. I think we should take up the BRIBES slogan. BRIBING Congress is against the law!

A simple slogan that says it all.

[bkkyosemite]

55. I think you're right!

[jimmil]

37. This is why I am against the current proposals

After seeing what happened to seniors when the whole medicare/medicaid drug reforms were enacted under Bush, all that really happened was the big pharmaceutical companies ended up making more money because of non-competition from other companies and the seniors ended up paying more money because low cost generics were not available under the plan. No one at the end of the day benefited. I knew if any big companies or lobbyist groups have a crack at making changes to the health care legislation the whole thing would end up with business getting more money and the people getting less care. I will bet my ranch that - (1) the tax payer will end up paying more, (2) there will be the same number of uninsured people in this country, and (3) there will be two huge bureaucracies created. One will be on the government side paying out the money and one will be on the business side taking in that money. The sum total of huge amounts of money actually helping sick people is ZERO.

All one has to do is to look at the function of insurance companies today. Their job is to make sure you get the least amount of money if any at all to pay medical bills, damage in a car wreck, money for articles stolen, whatever you are insured for. They aren't there to help you. They are there to help their bottom line. The more money collected and the least paid out means more for the people working there.

Say what you want to say and think what you want to think about people like me but this bill has the stench of Republicans all over it.

[SlingBlade]

38. Which means their taxes are WAY TOO LOW !

[Deep13]

40. Yeah, I think I know how to pay for the reforms.

Tax the parasites.

[SlingBlade]

42. Tax 'em up the Yahoo :)

[wordpix]

54. +1 Perfect solution to the "no new taxes to pay for health care" statements

[Gregorian]

41. This is the counterproductive side of capitalism.

Americans were comfortable. Now we're paying a serious price.

[PJPhreak]

43. Enough is enough!

For the last few months I have wached these "Teabaggers" out in the streets getting all the airtime from the MSM.

And what have most (But thankfully not all) of us Liberal/Progressives done?

Sat on our asses and bitched!

Well NO MORE!!

GET UP,RISE UP,AND FUCKING DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! NOW!!

I Didn't walk 258 miles from the DNC to the RNC in 2004 for This Bullshit!

We filled the streets of New York in 2004.WE MADE THE NEWS,NOT THEM!!

Its time to do it again!! For Real!!

Pick up your phones,Fire up those E-Mails,Grab your signs,your banners and yourself,get in your car,on your bike,or walk if you must,but its time!

WHAT DO WE WANT? SINGLE PAYER!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!!

WHAT DO WE WANT? SINGLE PAYER!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!!

WHAT DO WE WANT? SINGLE PAYER!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!!

WHAT DO WE WANT? SINGLE PAYER!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!!

WHAT DO WE WANT? SINGLE PAYER!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!!

WHAT DO WE WANT? SINGLE PAYER!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!!


And please lets leave Starbucks Windows alone,They are not running the Insurance Companys....They just sell coffee!

[rasputin1952]

45. I wonder how many people could have been helped if that cash

were actually spent on health care instead of making sure profits increased...while people suffered and died.

Do I care if insurance companies wither on the vine?, no, they poisoned themselves.

[AntySocial]

46. Insurance whores need to hear us.

We have a list of the republicans and blue dogs on here. AKA.. "Insurance Whores and Liars"
Write to them, let them know that we have had enough of their crap. We can not wait for them to get enough in their offshore accounts.
We need The Public Option Now !

[hay rick]

47. K&R

[Seldona]

50. $1.5 million is the most expensive bribe?

You would think with this much money on the line, these whores would ask for a bit more than that.

[wordpix]

61. that's just so far...and so far as we know

[DallasNE]

56. No Wonder Health Insurance Premiums Are Increasing

In the double-digits every year. Not one dime of this $380m was spent on treatment.

There is a simple answer, however. Public financing of federal elections. Let's get on with it!

[BillDU]

57. BS

Baloney
If the Dems don't include a public option with all their majority it's because they never intended to to begin with.

[DainBramaged]

63. You think this is BS, that the healthcrook lobby ISN'T spending millions?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[wordpix]

58. it used to be that wealthy people like John D. Rockefeller donated millions in the public interest

e.g. Ken Burns' Nat. Parks film highlighted Rockefeller's donations to create Grand Tetons NP and expand Yellowstone---:applause:

But now, the wealthy just want to get wealthier, and people like Bill Gates who donate to a good cause are rare.

:puke:

[Odin2005]

62. Corporate bribery.

:grr: