Medicare Contractor Firm Donates to GOP

WASHINGTON - A few weeks after the Bush administration named Medco to be one of the first Medicare drug card providers, a company executive helped throw a $100,000 fund-raiser for the president that was headlined by Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson.

The role of Medco Specialty Pharmacy Services president Alan Lotvin, a co-chairman of the mid-April event in New Jersey, is just one of the ways prescription drug card providers have reached out to Washington politicians over the last two years.


In all, companies that won approval from Thompson's department to be the first Medicare drug discount card providers spent at least $35 million lobbying in 2003, and their executives and lobbyists donated or raised hundreds of thousands of dollars more for Bush's re-election, an Associated Press review found.
~SNIP~
MORE:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=716&e=7&u=/ap/20040510/ap_on_el_pr/medicare_card_politics

Isn't that special?

~snip~

Some lobbyists who helped the companies make their case in Washington last year have strong ties to the Bush campaign or administration.


For instance, PacifiCare's lobbyists last year included Tom Loeffler, who raised at least $200,000 for Bush's 2004 campaign, and Jack Howard, a former White House employee who worked as deputy assistant to the president for legislative affairs.


Company executives also have played a role in the Bush campaign. United Health Group's chairman and chief executive, William McGuire, earned the label Bush "Pioneer" by raising at least $100,000 for Bush's campaign, as did Todd Farha, chairman and CEO of Wellcare Health Plans, and Samuel Skinner, a member of card provider Express Scripts' board of directors.

Michael Hightower, who collected at least $200,000 for the Bush campaign to become a Bush fund-raising "Ranger," is vice president of government relations for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Florida.

~snip~

:wtf:
The seniors have been screwed, and this is their way to thank GWB.
:argh:

Did they really not see the new Medicare "laws" as nothing more than a vehicle to give Chimpy's supporters a few $$ in kickbacks?

They should be ashamed for putting their political muscle on the line for this.