Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/24680
money I HEALTH CARE protest on the National Mall. Where did all this grassroots oppo- sition to health-care reform come from? Not the grass roots. Often called “astroturfing”—in other words, not involving real grass—this effort to propagandize against reform is funded by big mon- ey in the back room. America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), composed of almost 1,300 insurance companies, may be the biggest player in the so-called ordinary-citizen surge against reform. Although AHIP supports a requirement that everyone have health insurance—which would fatten insurance-company profits by gifting them with millions of new cus- tomers—the group vigorously oppos- es any public insurance option. AHIP told The Wall Street Journal that it has marshaled 50,000 insurance-company employees in hopes of killing an alter- native that could compete with its profit-driven member companies— sending them to town hall meetings and coordinating letter-writing drives and phone calls to politicians. Even more employee-protesters were recruited by United Health Group (UHG), one of the nation’s two largest insurance companies. UHG sent a letter (later leaked to TalkingPointsMemo.com) to its 75,000 workers that highlighted the company’s “strong concerns” about a public health-insurance option. Work- ers were urged to contact an “advocacy specialist” with the company’s lobby- ing group to “educate and assist” them in getting involved in protest actions, even during working hours. Then there’s Americans for Pros- perity (AFP), which started the “Patients First” series of bus-tour protests at town hall meetings around the country. Through its offshoot, Patients United Now, AFP has spent $1.8 million on one anti-reform TV 48 | FALL 2009 ad—featuring a woman, of course. AFP is funded in part by Kansas-based Koch Industries, the largest privately held oil company in the U.S., which has pharmaceutical interests. As much as AFP has spent, it doesn’t dominate among right-wing groups advertising against reform. That hon- or goes to Conservatives for Patients Rights, another astroturf group. Led and largely financed by former hospi- tal CEO Rick Scott, the group has spent more than $4.5 million on TV ads—most of them criticizing public health coverage—that have run hun- dreds of times this year. Rounding out the roster of behind- the-scenes funding operations is a group headed by Dick Armey, aTexas Republican who was formerly U.S. House majority leader, from 1995 to 2003. His organization, Freedom Works, provided the main sponsor- ship for the National Mall gathering. Freedom Works claimed the anger was “spontaneous,” all the while ac- knowledging that it was mounting a nationwide effort to recruit angry cit- izens, plying them with talking points, questions for lawmakers and draft letters to the editor. Protesters paid for with private monies may be the public face for killing health-care reform, but the real opinion shapers—holding even larger wads of cash—can be found in another back room, on Capitol Hill. Corpora- tions that can collectively be called Big Health—insurance, pharmaceutical, hospital and medical-device makers— bankroll both lobbyists and congres- sional candidates. AHIP once again is atop the heap of big spenders lobbying Congress to the tune of more than $10 million in 2008 and 2009 combined, spending $3.9 million in the first half of 2009 alone. Blue Cross/Blue Shield and its subsidiaries alone have spent almost $10 million so far this year, and phar- maceutical giant Pfizer laid out over $5.5 million in just three months. That kind of money buys a lot of influence, much of it with members of Congress who are key to shaping legislation. Direct contributions may be even more powerful than lobby- ing: Max Baucus (D-Mont.), one of the lead negotiators on health-care reform on the Senate Finance Com- mittee, who sided with Republicans and voted the public option away in committee, ranks high on the list of those receiving contributions from the health sector. Other big takers in the Top 20 include Sens. John McCain (R- Ariz.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), all of whom have supported the need for reform but remain against a public option. Despite the best efforts of Big Health to stymie reform, polls show many women still want a better health- care system. A September Gallup Poll found that 42 percent of women would vote for a congressional candidate who supports reform, while only 33 percent would put a representative in office who opposes it. Moreover, a substan- tial majority of U.S. citizens want a public option, according to recent polls. Some version of a health-reform bill will likely become law by the end of the year. But without a public option, it will likely be a hollow victory, deliver- ing millions more customers to private insurance companies without reining in their excesses. One thing is certain: Sham “re- form,” bought and paid for by conser- vative ideologues and rapacious corporations, won’t help people like Kendra Lucero Claeson. Despite pub- lic outcry and a wave of bad publicity about her case, the insurance company is sticking by its bottom line. MARTHA BURK is Money editor of Ms. www.feminist.org