Health Insurers Funded Chamber Attack Ads

[johnaries]

For everyone who thinks that insurance companies LOVE the HCR bill:

http://undertheinfluence.nationaljournal.com/2010/01/health-insurers-funded-chamber.php

Just as dealings with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats soured last summer, six of the nation's biggest health insurers began quietly pumping big money into third-party television ads aimed at killing or significantly modifying the major health reform bills moving through Congress.

That money, between $10 million and $20 million, came from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Wellpoint, according to two health care lobbyists familiar with the transactions. The companies are all members of the powerful trade group America's Health Insurance Plans.
......
The U.S. Chamber has spent approximately $70 million to $100 million on the advertising effort, according to lobbying sources. It's unclear whether the business lobby group went to AHIP with a request to help raise funds for its ad drives, or whether AHIP approached the chamber with an offer to hit up its member companies.

The House passed its health care reform measure in November; the Senate's didn't pass its version until December. Late last week, Employers for a Healthy Economy launched a new round of TV ads on national cable that are slated to run for a week. Sources say that the chamber-backed ads will likely continue as the two bills are combined in coming weeks.

So, this is a corporate sell-out because the insurance companies LOVE the bill? I don't think so.

[Wilms]

1. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7493989&mesg_id=7494015

[johnaries]

2. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7493989&mesg_id=7494028

[alp227]

3. Of course they would. It's called "working the refs".

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2005/05/b711509.html