August 13, 2009

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Posted at 9:40 AM by Rob Schofield

Here’s a shocking bit of news: Many of the members of Congress who oppose health care reform are getting bankrolled by the health care and insurance industries! Who could have imagined?!

Check out this morning’s news release from the always stellar Bob Hall at Democracy North Carolina:

For Release: Thursday, August 13, 2009
Contact: Bob Hall, Direct line: 919-489-1931

Democracy North Carolina

1821 Green St., Durham, NC 27705 · 919-489-1931 or 286-6000 · democracy-nc.org

Healthcare and Insurance Campaign Contributions Top $5 Million to North Carolina Members of Congress; Richard Burr Leads the List

Rep. Walter Jones Links Drug Money, Healthcare & Campaign Reform

“The pharmaceutical and insurance industries are among the most aggressive lobbies in Washington, and they pour millions into campaigns to gain an advantage that can harm consumers,” said Hall. “Many members take the money and still vote against these industries, but consistent opposition comes with a price. The nation needs public campaign finance reform as well as serious health insurance reform, and we may not get the second without the first.”

Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, noted that none of the four NC legislators (Burr, Foxx, McHenry, Myrick) who raised $180,000 or more from either healthcare professionals, drug makers, or the insurance industry earned a score above 15 on the American Public Health Association’s voting assessment for 2005-06 (Butterfield, Miller, Price and Watt each earned a 90; Etheridge and McIntyre each scored 74; Jones got a 73; and Coble got a 7).

As the debate about health insurance reform continues, a new analysis shows a wide disparity in the amount of campaign donations members of Congress from North Carolina have received from healthcare providers, drug makers, and the insurance industry.

The state’s two U.S. Senators and 13 members of the House of Representatives have received a total of $5.2 million from individuals and political action committees (PACs) related to insurance and healthcare services in the past three election cycles (covering 2003-2008), according to an analysis by the watchdog group Democracy North Carolina, using data compiled from the Center for Responsive Politics and Federal Elections Commission.

Here are some highlights:

Sen. Richard Burr (R-Winston-Salem) leads the NC list by far, with $1,674,101 or almost three times the $630,949 raised by number two, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-Charlotte). Burr and Myrick both oppose the health reform proposals of Democratic leaders in the Senate and House.

Sen. Burr is the national leader for campaign money received from the pharmaceutical industry.  His $420,782 total for 2003-2008 beat all U.S. House and Senate candidates. Burr has been a strong ally of the industry; he opposed bills to require Medicare to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs (e.g., votes on March 17, 2005 and April 18, 2007) and a bill to provide incentives for Medicaid recipients to use generics instead of brand-name drugs (Nov. 3, 2005).

The health and insurance sector is the largest source of campaign funds for Sen. Burr’s career in the Senate, supplying 15 percent of all his donations that could be classified by industry sector for 2003-2008. He collected most of the money during his 2004 race, when he raised four times as much from the healthcare/insurance sector as his opponent, Erskine Bowles.

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-Greensboro) raised $217,208 from the healthcare/insurance sector for her 2008 campaign, or less than a third of the $786,712 that her opponent, then-Sen. Elizabeth Dole, raised during 2007-08. Hagan voted for the Democrats’ reform proposal in a key Senate committee earlier this summer. Healthcare/insurance money represents less than four percent of the contributions she collected that could be classified by industry sector.

Rep. Sue Myrick led the list of House members from NC with $630,949. She led other House members in the most raised from health professionals and drug makers. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-Banner Elk) followed Myrick for funds from health professionals, raising $187,348.

Rep. Brad Miller (D-Raleigh) led all NC House members for the most received from the insurance industry with $178,719, barely edging out Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-Cherryville).  McHenry follows Myrick on the overall list with a total of $501,039 from the healthcare/ insurance sector for 2003-2008.

Rep. David Price (D-Chapel Hill) easily led the NC House Democrats in funds ($115,950) from the pharmaceutical industry, a Triangle economic and political powerhouse. Price is rated highly by public health groups, but unlike Miller and Rep. Mel Watt (D-Charlotte), he joined Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington), Mike McIntyre (D-Lumberton) and most Republicans to oppose allowing the import of FDA-approved prescription drugs into the U.S. (vote on July 25, 2003).

Rep. Howard Coble (R-Greensboro) raised a total of $133,602 from the healthcare and insurance sector, which ranks him last among NC members of Congress with campaigns in all three of the past election cycles. However, he took $74,499 (or more than half of his total) from drug makers, which ranks him fourth from that source, behind Burr, Myrick, and Price. Coble voted with most other Republicans against requiring Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices (Jan. 12, 2007) and against imported FDA-approved prescription drugs.

Rep. G. K Butterfield (D-Wilson) and Rep. Mel Watt
followed Coble near the bottom of the list, with totals of $140,125 and $177,350 respectively. They are among the strongest advocates for comprehensive healthcare reform.

Rep. Heath Schuler (D-Waynesville) raised more from the healthcare/insurance sector in the 2008 election cycle than any other NC Democrat in the House – $149,352. He is a whip for the conservative Blue Dog Democrats and is considered a swing vote on healthcare reform.

Of the twelve NC members of Congress in office during 2004-2008, Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. (R-Farmville) got the least amount from the pharmaceutical industry – a total of only $7,000 over three campaigns. Jones is also the only Republican from North Carolina who voted for requiring Medicare to use its purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices, for encouraging the use of generics, and for allowing the import of FDA-approved prescription drugs.  

Rep. Jones says the perceived relationship between votes and campaign money damages “public trust” in Congress. In fact, he is the main Republican sponsor of the Fair Elections Now Act (HR-1826), which would provide a public campaign option in Congressional elections, similar to the program now in place for appellate court judges in North Carolina. At a hearing on the legislation in July, Rep. Jones used the drug industry’s political clout as the example of why reform is needed. See: http://cha.house.gov/UserFiles/242_testimony.pdf

“Members of Congress are currently mired in a system where the perception is that money has undue influence over votes,” Rep. Jones told his colleagues.  He noted the role of the campaign donations in the Medicare drug coverage debate of 2003 and said, “The same thing is happening today: special interests are pouring money into the healthcare debate. It’s time to return the government to the people. The first step is for Congress to pass legislation like the Fair Elections Now Act, which would help ensure that the average citizen has a voice. Let the people, not special interest groups, control Washington.”


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8 Comments

8 Comments Add yours »

Rob Schofield 13 Aug 2009 9:47 am

Credit to Walter Jones for speaking out and, I guess, to those members who have been able to accept the contributions while still doing the right thing.

Dragan Glas 13 Aug 2009 10:10 am

Greetings,

Perhaps if/when they bring in legislation to force legislators to reveal whence comes their funding, the relationship of votes-for-money will become clearer to the taxpayer,

Failing that, a simpler solution is to disallow legislators from voting on a bill if they’ve been funded by a “interested party”.

Kindest regards,

James

Rob Schofield 13 Aug 2009 10:14 am

Or maybe we can just adopt public campaign financing as Democracy NC proposes.

Paul 13 Aug 2009 2:10 pm

It’s funny we hear Republicans say that they do not want “faceless bureaucrats” making medical decisions but they have no problem with “private sector” “faceless bureaucrats” daily declining medical coverage and financially ruining good hard working people (honestly where can they go with a pre-condition). And who says that the “private sector” is always right, do we forget failures like Long-Term Capital, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, Tyco, AIG and Lehman Brothers. Of course the federal government will destroy heathcare by getting involved, Oh but wait, Medicare and Medicaid and our military men and women and the Senate and Congress get the best heathcare in the world, and oh, that’s right, its run by our federal government. I can understand why some may think that the federal government will fail, if you look at the past eight years as a current history, with failures like the financial meltdown and Katrina but the facts is they can and if we support them they will succeed.

How does shouting down to stop the conversation of the healthcare debate at town hall meetings, endears them to anyone. Especially when the organizations that are telling them where to go and what to do and say are Republicans political operatives, not real grassroots. How does shouting someone down or chasing them out like a “lynch mob” advanced the debate, it does not. So I think the American people will see through all of this and know, like the teabagger, the birthers, these lynch mobs types AKA “screamers” are just the same, people who have to resort to these tactics because they have no leadership to articulate what they real want. It’s easy to pickup a bus load of people who hate, and that’s all I been seeing, they hate and can’t debate. Too bad.

Wes 13 Aug 2009 4:46 pm

and democrat majority leader Harry Reid has collected the most donations from insurance companies in the past year!! Maybe this is why he’s spearheading the effort to past a partisan piece of legislation that he knows want pass rather than working for a bipartisan bill that will help everyone. Look at what they did is Massachusetts. It took two years but they still passed a bill that has 98% of their population covered and didn’t have to have the state run healthcare (it also came in 200 million dollars under budget). If you want to talk about health care reform look how much money trial lawyers donate to democratic candidates so that they will prevent tort and medical malpractice reform (couch John Edwards) and keep insurance premiums high. People accuse the Republicans of not trying to get reform passed during the past 8 years and that’s largely because they believe that the state’s should handle their own healthcare. Afterall, would you rather have the federal government handle the health care of over 300 million Americans or the north carolina government (who i think better understand the health care needs of its citizens) handle health care for all ten million citizens? Also if you want to talk about insurance companies donating to North Carolinian candidates look how many people are employed by insurance agencies in NC. Blue Cross Blue Shield is a non profit organization and it one of the state’s largest employers, so i think they have a good reason so make donations to our politicians campaigns.

Mad As Hell Doctors 13 Aug 2009 4:59 pm

http://www.madashelldoctors.com/.

Clinicians for single payer…….

Single Payer Action 13 Aug 2009 7:31 pm

The Obama administration and the Democratic Congressional leadership have sold out health care reform for the tainted coin of the medical-industrial industry, and are holding, or trying to hold, these meetings around the country to promote legislation that has essentially been written for them by that industry–legislation that will force everyone to pay for insurance as offered, and priced, by the private insurance industry. What a deal for those companies–a captive market of 300 million people! There will be little or no effort to control prices, and the higher costs will be financed through higher taxes, and through cuts in Medicare benefits.

This isn’t “reform.” It’s corruption, pure and simple

Dragan Glas 14 Aug 2009 9:25 am

Greetings Mr, Schofield,

“Or maybe we can just adopt public campaign financing as Democracy NC proposes.”

True – however, I had two reasons for posting the alternatives,

1) If they don’t pass the public funding bill, these possibilities would be available,

2) From what I’ve read, there seems to be some dispute as to whether such a bill would end current practices – consider the free flights which the most recent ex-governor received…

Kindest regards,

James

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