Who’s Paying to Shape Health Care Reform?
The $849 billion health care reform bill making its way through Congress promises to redefine the health care landscape. That’s why health care companies are now spending hundreds of millions of dollars to shape the topography.
Health care groups — insurance companies, drugmakers, doctors — spent a record $486 million on lobbying in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog focused on the influence of private money in government. This year, health organizations are on track to shatter that number, says Dave Levinthal, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics: Health care groups spent $396.2 million on lobbying in the first 10 months of the year, and are expected to have amped up spending in November and December.
“Corporate and special interests have played an incredibly large role in the shaping of this legislation,” says Levinthal.