The Max Baucus Health Care Lobbyist Complex

[FreakinDJ]

The Max Baucus Health Care Lobbyist Complex

As the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus is at the center of the congressional effort to craft health care reform legislation, a top priority of President Barack Obama. The Baucus-headed Finance Committee has been singled out by advocates and news organizations as the toughest obstacle for the President’s health care priorities. Containing more moderate and conservative members may not be the only reason. The committee is packed with lawmakers who have close ties to the health care and insurance industries, receiving large campaign contributions as their former staffers turn around to lobby for the very interests whose issues — in this case health care — they previously worked on. Baucus, as chair, stands out in particular.

Lobbying disclosure filings for the first quarter of 2009 reveal that five of Baucus’ former staffers currently work for a total of twenty-seven different organizations that are either in the health care or insurance sector or have a noted interest in the outcome. The organizations represented include some of the top lobbying organizations in the health sector: Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Researchers of America (PhRMA), America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), Amgen, and GE Health Care.

The former staffers turned lobbyists include two former chiefs of staff, David Castagnetti and Jeff Forbes, and one former legislative assistant, Scott Olsen. Other former staffers working with health care portfolios include Angela Hoffman and Roger Blauwet.

The overall health and insurance sectors haven’t just been kind to Baucus’ staffers, but they’ve also aided his campaigns handsomely over the years, especially in his barely contested 2008 reelection campaign. In 2008, Baucus received $1,148,775 from the health sector and $285,850 from the insurance sector. For his career he has received $2,797,381 from the health sector and $1,170,313 from the insurance sector.

http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/projects/2009/healthcare_lobbyist_complex/

Max Baucus -
"Head Health Insurance Company Lobbyist" on the Senate Finance Committee desperately needs an Unemployment check to go with the millions of dollars he has accepted from the "For-Profit" Health Insurance Industry

[Bill219]

1. Max Baucus is no Democrat...

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200907302105dowjonesdjonline001148&title=us-sen-finance-staffer-exhorts-lobbyists-to-get-behind-talks


US Sen Finance Staffer Exhorts Lobbyists To Get Behind Talks


By Martin Vaughan, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A top staffer for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., warned a group of business lobbyists Thursday that if they don't help bipartisan Senate negotiations on health care to succeed, they might get stuck with Democrat- written provisions they won't like.

The remarks by Jon Selib, chief of staff to Baucus, were made in a closed-door meeting with about 20 lobbyists for employer groups and the insurance industry, and recounted to Dow Jones by people in the meeting.

According to participants, Selib said public statements by Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, are undermining the bipartisan talks. He told lobbyists that if the group does not strike an agreement by next week, the result could be that Democratic leaders will abandon the bipartisan talks and pass a Democrat-written bill through the Senate.

[watrwefitinfor]

2. .