Non-partisan group, Center for Responsive Politics just broke the recent news about the amount and origin of money passing hands in Washington politics for 2007. What did they discover? Health insurance dominated the Washington lobby.
The group also found that an average of $17 million a day was injected into K Street last year (a total of $2.79 billion), blistering past any previous records for total lobby dollars spent in a year.
Which Party Takes the Most Health Care Lobby Dollars?
The question remains, which political party gets the lions’ share? The average of the top 15 contributors provides a revealing and surprising fact: Both Democrats and Republicans took equal shares of the bounty. Democrats accounted for 49.7 percent of the share, while Republicans snapped up pretty much the same.
Here are the top dollars, broken down by party contributions for the top 15 lobbyists.
|
Rank
|
Lobbyist |
 |
 |
 |
|
1.
|
AFLAC Inc. |
$907,150
|
53%
|
47%
|
|
2.
|
New York Life Insurance |
$795,794
|
58%
|
42%
|
|
3.
|
Blue Cross/Blue Shield |
$729,935
|
55%
|
45%
|
|
4.
|
Natl Assn/Ins. & Fin. Advisors |
$572,750
|
50%
|
49%
|
|
5.
|
Independent Ins. Agents |
$541,250
|
40%
|
60%
|
|
6.
|
Metropolitan Life Insurance |
$470,954
|
63%
|
37%
|
|
7.
|
American Financial Group |
$441,850
|
2%
|
98%
|
|
8.
|
Travelers Companies |
$425,200
|
59%
|
41%
|
|
9.
|
Massachusetts Mutual Life |
$420,530
|
58%
|
42%
|
|
10.
|
Genworth Financial |
$388,858
|
47%
|
53%
|
|
11.
|
American International Group |
$364,081
|
64%
|
36%
|
|
12.
|
United Services Auto Assn. |
$348,917
|
36%
|
64%
|
|
13.
|
Prudential Financial |
$297,758
|
67%
|
33%
|
|
14.
|
Liberty Mutual Insurance |
$297,486
|
55%
|
45%
|
|
15.
|
Council Ins.Agents & Brokers |
$288,439
|
38%
|
62%
|
And here’s a video of Michael Moore’s Sicko screening for lobbyists, illustrating exactly how much health care and insurance lobbyists are interested in the average American. Note: Out of 900 invited, only 11 showed up.
More Info.:
Insurance Journal:
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2008/04/14/89108.htm
OpenSecrets (Center for Responsive Politics)
http://www.opensecrets.org/
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