Top Insurers Spend Heavily to Influence Debate on Health Care Reform

flex their political power to the tune of 2.5 million per month - an increase of 25 per cent over the previous years - in the first half of 2009 to influence the debate on reforming health care, according to a report released today by the nonpartisan group Public Campaign Action Fund.



"These highly profitable companies spend millions every month to protect their financial results in fighting against reform health care in Washington, DC," said David Donnelly, national campaigns director of the Campaign Action Fund. "To put it bluntly, they have invested heavily in lobbyists and insiders American politicians to keep their bottom line, leaving aside the cold and stuck with our system of health care broken. It is time to end the hunt campaign funds and let the politicians do what we elected them to do - discuss and adopt sound public policy that benefits us all and not just those who can make a significant campaign contribution. "



"At a time when Congress is hotly debating the reform of health care, people want to know that their elected officials are listening to them, not insurance companies and HMOs," Donnelly continued. "The best how to break the link between special interests and the people we elect the Fair Elections act now. "

The report is the second in a series of reports that examines the political spending of the insurance and Health Services/HMO industries. The first part, released yesterday, looked at the industries as a whole (http://www.campaignmoney.org/HMO_insurance_spend_to_kill_reform).

The study analyzed political spending - campaign contributions by company political action committees and employees, as well as lobbying expenses - for the 14 insurance companies that were ranked in the largest 1,000 American corporations by Forbes Magazine earlier this year (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/industries/223/index.html).

Lobbying expenses and employee campaign contributions from America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's trade group, were also included in the analysis. All of the data was compiled by reviewing records found at the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics website and the Senate lobbying disclosure website. A chart below lists the companies and their political spending:

2009 2007-2009 Corporation/ Contributions Lobbying Contributions Lobbying Association Aetna Inc. $11,200 $1,441,639 $949,496 $5,566,919 America's Health $3,514 $3,900,000 $31,615 $18,340,000 Insurance Plans Amerigroup Corp $53,140 $215,000 $234,782 $720,000 Centene Corp $19,300 $230,000 $197,824 $720,000 Cigna Corp $57,365 $720,000 $385,175 $2,981,436 Coventry Health Care $19,100 $300,000 $129,300 $1,600,000 Health Net Inc. $11,300 $680,000 $352,788 $2,575,000 Healthspring $2,400 $90,000 $26,150 $290,000 Humana Inc. $170,556 $950,000 $698,992 $3,418,945 Medical Mutual of Ohio $3,000 $0 $9,000 $0 Molina Healthcare $72,507 $270,000 $243,991 $1,490,000 UnitedHealth Group $130,200 $2,500,000 $1,014,961 $11,240,000 Universal American $3,800 $865,000 $157,851 $2,618,000 Financial Corp WellCare Group $2,500 $200,000 $183,461 $930,000 Wellpoint $202,400 $2,420,000 $922,795 $7,770,000 Totals $762,282 $14,781,639 $5,538,181 $60,260,300

Public Campaign Action Fund advocates for the Fair Elections Now Act (H.R. 1826, S.

752), or comprehensive public financing of elections. The bill was introduced by House Democratic Caucus Chair John Larson (D-Conn.) and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and would provide qualified federal candidates the opportunity to run for office with a mixture of small donations and public funding.

Public Campaign Action Fund is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing comprehensive reform of America's election laws and works to hold politicians accountable for the favors they do for special interests.

SOURCE Public Campaign Action Fund