Reply #8: Baucus draws big money from health industry--Billings Post, Billings Montana........ [View All]

[snowdays]

http://hcfany.org/2009/03/10/report-from-white-house-health-care-summit /

3/12/09 Billings Post, Billings Montana

Baucus draws big money from health industry

by Cathy Siegner - Helena Handbag

A new study released this week by a California advocacy group shows that U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has received more campaign contributions from health insurance firms and pharmaceutical manufacturers over the past four years than any other Democrat in Congress.

According to the Consumer Watchdog study using Federal Election Commission data, Sen. Baucus has received $413,000 since 2005 from insurance companies and drug makers, third behind U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

The study by Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog (www.consumerwatchdog.org ) was the subject of a story in Sunday’s Washington Post, which also noted that the ailing U.S. healthcare system appears poised for significant reform, possibly this year.

Sen. Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has already had a lot of influence on the discussion, including issuing a “white paper” last fall advocating mandatory health-insurance coverage in the United States.

He has indicated that he doesn’t favor a single-payer approach to health coverage in this country, a position at odds with the ever-growing number of his constituents who have had it with the health-insurance industry. Sen. Baucus has said that the United States needs a combination of public and private coverage and that the country “isn’t ready” for a single-payer system..................