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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHealth Care Insurers Spent $100 Million To Defeat Obamacare
As the Supreme Court readies to announce their decision on the individual mandate portion of the health reform, it has emerged that the largest health care lobbying group in the country spent a total of $102.4 million in just 15 months to prevent Obamacare from becoming law in the first place.
In 2009 alone, Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) pumped $86.2 million into a conservative lobbying group, the US Chamber of Commerce, to combat President Obamas health care reform plan. But with the added months of 2010 prior to the ACAs March passage, AHIP piled on an additional $16 million to be used against the bill.
That staggering total, which the National Journals Influence Alley uncovered today, was not out in the open rather, the funds were transferred through a secretive process and listed only by the organization as advocacy spending:
The backchannel spending allowed insurers to publicly stake out a pro-reform position while privately funding the leading anti-reform lobbying group in Washington. The chamber spent tens of millions of dollars bankrolling efforts to kill health care reform.
more at link
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/06/13/499093/health-care-insurers-spent-100-million-to-combat-the-affordable-care-act/
TheWraith
(24,331 posts)The only thing clearer would be if the emperor asked them for an opinion on his new outfit.
Wait Wut
(8,492 posts)...they could've saved with that money. Even with the addition of those with PEs, factor in early detection with routine exams...lots of lives.
3waygeek
(2,034 posts)You could probably find more money in the couches of their executive suites.
Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)we think that preventing and treating disease should be for profit. What kind of morose mentality is that?
I don't mean that doctors, hospitals, etc. should not be compensated for their services. I don't mean that they shouldn't be paid well for the complexity of the services, the education, time and investment of the doctors, nurses, etc.
It is that we view health care as a profit industry rather than an industry that should strive to provide the best possible healthcare for the most possible people at the lowest cost.
Again, we are a perverse society that wants to profit off of the health challenges faced by millions of Americans.