{"id":6271,"date":"2017-09-23T10:52:09","date_gmt":"2017-09-23T17:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=6271"},"modified":"2017-09-23T10:52:36","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T17:52:36","slug":"sanders-prepared-medicare-bill-health-care-lobbyists-bankrolled-senate-democrats-occupy-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/09\/23\/sanders-prepared-medicare-bill-health-care-lobbyists-bankrolled-senate-democrats-occupy-com\/","title":{"rendered":"AS SANDERS PREPARED MEDICARE BILL, HEALTH CARE LOBBYISTS BANKROLLED SENATE DEMOCRATS (Occupy.com)"},"content":{"rendered":"

MON, 9\/18\/2017 – BY\u00a0<\/span>DAVID SIROTA AND LYDIA O’NEAL<\/a><\/p>\n

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As Bernie Sanders worked to finalize his\u00a0Medicare-for-All Act of 2017<\/a>, corporate lobbyists representing the traditional opponents of single-payer health care \u2013 including the nation\u2019s major private insurers and drug companies \u2013 poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Senate Democrats\u2019 fundraising accounts. Now, many of those lawmakers have refused to sign on to the Medicare bill.<\/p>\n

Sanders has faced questions about whether or not the bill would garner solid support among Senate Democrats. So far, 16 Senate Democrats have said they will sponsor the legislation \u2013 which the insurance industry slammed after he announced it.\u00a0A new study<\/a>\u00a0from campaign finance watchdog group MapLight found that since 2010, Democratic senators who have refused to sponsor the bill have, during their careers, raised twice as much insurance industry cash as those who support the legislation.<\/p>\n

As Republicans took over the White House earlier this year, significant campaign funding for Democratic senators has continued to come from lobbyists. According to federal campaign finance records reviewed by International Business Times, lobbyists, lobbying firms and one other corporate political action committee collectively delivered nearly $2 million in bundled campaign contributions to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the first half of 2017. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the DSCC\u2019s chairman, was a proponent of the law that requires lobbyists to disclose the contributions they bundle together from donors.<\/p>\n

With Sanders and a majority of House Democrats supporting single-payer \u2013 and with polls showing rising support for a Medicare-for-all system \u2013 lobbyists for major health care industry clients were among the biggest donors to Democrats in the Senate, as they have been in years past. Among those who delivered the most cash to the DSCC in the first half of 2017 were:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Steve Elmendorf, the former top aide to then-House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt. He delivered $130,400 to the DSCC while representing insurance giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. and dialysis conglomerate DaVita Inc.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jonathon Jones, the former chief of staff for Sen. Tom Carper, a Finance Committee member has not signed onto the single-payer initiative. He delivered $97,000 to the DSCC while representing insurers Anthem Inc. and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, as well as the trade group Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and drugmakers Amgen Inc., Astellas Pharma Inc., AstraZeneca, Merck & Co. Inc., Novartis, Genentech Inc. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lisa Kontoupes, a former aide to President Bill Clinton and staffer for Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. She delivered $77,500 to the DSCC while representing drugmakers Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc..<\/p>\n

\u2022 David Castagnetti, the former top aide to Montana Sen. Max Baucus, who was accused of blocking a debate over single-payer during the Affordable Care Act deliberations. Castagnetti delivered $64,000 to the DSCC while representing insurers Humana Inc., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona and the parent company of Oscar Health Insurance.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jeff Forbes, the former staff director for Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the nation\u2019s healthcare system. He delivered $20,000 to the DSCC while representing the drug industry\u2019s trade association, PhRMA, as well as individual drug companies Abbott Laboratories, Amgen and Genentech.<\/p>\n

The principals of major lobbying firms also gave big to Senate Democrats. Tony Podesta, the namesake of the Podesta Group and a top Hillary Clinton bundler, gave $202,476 to the DSCC while representing the American Healthcare Association and Mylan \u2014 the controversial maker of the Epipen. Heather Podesta of Podesta + Partners delivered $226,400 to the DSCC while representing Baxter Healthcare and insurer Cigna.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, two lobbying firms\u2019 corporate political action committees gave directly to the DSCC. Brownstein Hyatt Farber\u2019s PAC, for instance, bundled $307,000 for the DSCC while the firm represents Anthem, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and drugmaker Abbvie. Holland & Knight\u2019s Committee For Effective Government bundled $104,650 for the DSCC while representing BlueCross Blue Shield of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Originally published by International Business Times<\/a><\/p>\n

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MON, 9\/18\/2017 – BY\u00a0DAVID SIROTA AND LYDIA O’NEAL As Bernie Sanders worked to finalize his\u00a0Medicare-for-All Act of 2017, corporate lobbyists representing the traditional opponents of single-payer health care \u2013 including the nation\u2019s major private insurers and drug companies \u2013 poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Senate Democrats\u2019 fundraising accounts…. Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6271"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6273,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271\/revisions\/6273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}