Home > Uncategorized > Proactive and Positive: An Inside Man

Proactive and Positive: An Inside Man

Post on May 15, 2007 by 7 Comments »

Rob Schofield wrote a great piece for the NC Policy Watch site that details the new effort to defeat mental health and substance abuse parity bill in the NC House.  It reminded me of an N&O article from a couple of years ago about Democratic operative and PR man Ken Eudy.  To wit:

As a lobbyist, Eudy helped the insurance industry kill a bill requiring companies to provide equal treatment for mental as well as physical illness."

Capstrat, Eudy's company, has a link on the front page of its website exhorting you to learn how they help as "Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina keeps its reputation on the bright side."  Isn't that special?

The effort to defeat parity this time is very hush-hush, back hall, dimly lit I like to imagine, because no one wants that bad PR.  But why, why, why do we shrug this off as business as usual?  I know PR people need to get paid, houses at Emerald Isle don't pay for themselves, but is there no line that won't be crossed?  According to the N&O, "The only clients Eudy says he won't work for are the video poker industry and the tobacco industry."  Ah, well, that's good to know.  To charges that he gets jobs because of his insider status, Eudy simply said, "It's a factor. "I think being smart is a lot more important."  Do you now?  Naturally, it helps when you or your team members have a finger in every powerful pie. Capstrat's website puts it this way:

With more than 25 years of experience in Washington and Raleigh, our professionals … gained their political expertise on the front lines, from lobbying in the General Assembly to leading a US senator’s staff to representing a global corporation on Capitol Hill."

We're no strangers to the revolving door between government and industry, but it doesn't mean we have to like it or ignore its consequences.  When something as fundamentally just as parity can't even get out of a committee, it's time to look around.  If everyone's in bed with everyone, who's getting screwed?  For starters, and as usual, the mentally ill.  Let's remember who's doing what with whom, lest we let one party off more easily than it deserves.  In the spirit of Anglico's map and Joe Sinsheimer's right and righteous indignation, I've brought you today's connect the dots.  

Possibly related posts:

  1. NCIOM: NC ignores respected business consultants in setting up health exchange
  2. Actual earthquake v. health policy earthquake
  3. Finally, some good news on wage standards
  4. McHenry’s role in attempt to smear consumer watchdog
  5. Jobs saved over Republican objections

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments (Closed):6

  1. Anglico
    May 15, 2007 at 8:25 pm

    Some more dots to connect.

    I work with Capstrat part-time from my home in Chapel Hill. Being a telecommuter, I don’t know who all the clients are, but I do know that Blue Cross and Blue Shield is one of them.

    My position on mental health parity is the same as yours, as you know from my many writings and rantings. I voice my strong opinion to anyone who will listen, but unfortunately, I don’t seem to have much influence on the issue. That doesn’t stop me from trying, and I like to think I’ve made some positive differences on other issues over the years. For example, I had a role in helping to position Land for Tomorrow a year or so back.

    I don’t know any of the details on how or why mental health parity is getting derailed, but I don’t sense the Blues are driving the opposition. If it turns out that they are, well, one of Capstrat’s clients won’t be very happy with me. Neither will my boss.

  2. Andrea V
    May 16, 2007 at 6:49 am

    From the Tuesday Fitzsimon File:
    “Lobbyists from Blue Cross didn’t speak publicly, but several lawmakers presented the company’s point of view, opposing coverage of substance abuse. Blue Cross has also reportedly backed away from covering all mental illnesses too.”

    I guess being Capstrat’s Nathan Myhrvold/Imagineer/Chief Strategist doesn’t mean one can dictate BCBS positions. More’s the pity.

  3. Anglico
    May 16, 2007 at 9:13 am

    Thanks for the quote from Chris. I hadn’t seen that one.

    The truth is, I can’t even dictate a letter, let alone positions of a client the company works for. Everyone knows where I stand on this, but like I said, I don’t seem to have much influence on the issue.

    More to the point, what the hell are lawmakers doing presenting the company’s point of view? The amount of cowering and/or water-carrying our so-called elected officials engage in is unconscionable. The last time I looked, their job was to represent “we the people,” not “them the companies.”

  4. J. Wilbert Edgerton
    May 16, 2007 at 4:52 pm

    It is shameful that the mentally ill cannot get the treatment they ness at a price theyu can afford. In the long run it means that our jails and hospital emergence rooms become overloaded and still the mentally ill are not getting proper treatment. It is time fdor this kind of nightmare to be oved. Legislators please listen to us people who know and appreciate what the problems are, and take action!!
    J. Wilbert Edgerton, Ph.D. (Retired)

  5. Ann A
    May 16, 2007 at 10:29 pm

    One would think that after the Jim Black fiasco that our lawmakers would be more inclined to do the right thing than to cave in to special interests. Do you think all the behind the scenes deals and lobbying are what our forefathers had in mind when they created our system of governance? Its pretty interesting, too, that our state-wide mental health, DD & substance abuse organizations try to play the same game as BCBS. With no money behind them, state organizations will never make a dent in the public policy arena. The one weapon they have is to get the real information to the public and let the folks down on Jones Street hear from the voters about BCBS and DHHS. Unfortunately, the EDs of these statewide organizations are deluded enough to think that they are “making real progress” in getting funding and services for people with mental illness. The signs on Halifax Mall yesterday told the whole story. “Don’t Derail us!” The train went off the tracks a long time ago, and until these organizations get enough testosterone to realize they have to play a rough and tumble game, they will continue to get patronizing excuses for why our lawmakers and other elected officials are letting our public mental health system go down the tubes. Why they are probably learning to lobby from training paid for by pharmaceutical companies. Case in point is the training Astrazeneca is having on June 1. Now why do you think they want to train people like me for free?

  6. Andrea V
    May 17, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    Thanks, Ann, for commenting. I think many advocacy groups are afraid of offending their sympathizers and losing the mere crumbs they’re thrown. I don’t blame them necessarily, but I can see where it would make you impatient. It’s true that absent the resources of company with major profits/surpluses or a champion like, say, the governor, it’s hard to get real change going in our political system. We’ll just have to keep speaking truth to whatever power is listening.

    As for the marketing of psychiatric drugs, Steve Turner recently called it a “horror” and I can’t really top that. (http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/?p=370#comments)