Help! The HEALTH INSURANCE LOBBYISTS are going to 'eat' the NAIC this weekend!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

This weekend, more than 1,000 insurance lobbyists and executives are expected to converge in Seattle to pressure the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to undercut important new rules intended to control costs and make health insurance more affordable for families and businesses. The insurance lobbyists will be met by scores of activists, because the stakes in this fight are too high.

Washington, DC – The HMO and insurance industries have spent a breathtaking $768,864,642 since 2007 on federal lobbying to influence public policy and elected officials, according to Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the 1,000-member coalition that led the successful fight for health reform. The pace of spending in 2010 hasn’t let up since last year’s national debate over health reform, as the insurance companies now are trying to undermine the health reform law with intense pressure on state officials to water down the federal provisions and interfere with their implementation. The lobbying spending data was collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ethan-rome/battle-in-seattle-over-in_b_680326.html

http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/content/insurers_spent_769_million_on_lobbying_to_protect_profits

[kenny blankenship]

1. It's a Gold Rush. What did you expect would come of this new kind of "reform"?

[zipplewrath]

2. I though HCR fixed this problem?

After all it appointed a new administrator with strong credentials.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. I thought so too!

[NorthCarolina]

6. I thought it was health Insurance reform (HIR), not HCR.

:shrug:

[zipplewrath]

8. It was

Which is why the health INSURANCE lobbiests are showing up. Because much of the reform came in the form of regulations that haven't been written yet.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. Congress needs to fix this

[derby378]

15. Oh yeah, an anti-public option zealot!

Oh, this is working out so well...

[AndyA]

4. We just need to put an end to the lobbying industry.

The Senators and Representatives should listen to their constituents back home to understand what's going on. We don't need industry lobbyists to "influence" them, all it's done is open the door wide to corruption, under the table deals, and conflicts of interest.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. I thought we were going to stop this lobbyist thing?

why hasn't it progressed? Weren't tere some bills passed?

[AndyA]

7. I don't think we can believe anything we're told these days.

They're all liars, they all say what they have to in order to get what they want, then we're supposed to just forget about all the promises that were made.

It sure doesn't look to me like the lobbying industry has been reigned in. Not at all. :(

If you can't see the change, perhaps it's because there really hasn't been any. :shrug:

[alc]

10. no bills and no promises by congress.

A few congressmen have made statements against lobbyists, but neither the house nor senate considered any restrictions on lobbyists.

Obama said no lobbyists and issued an executive order disallowing lobbyists in the administration his first week in office. He then issued a waiver of the order 2 days later and 10+ other waivers soon after. And that's just the lobbyists with jobs in the administration. That doesn't count the pharma lobbyists they made a secret deal with, or the ones they meet outside the white house so they can't been seen on the visitors list (the list they finally agreed to release after loosing in court 2 times).

Lobbyists are running things as much as ever and nobody in DC seems to want to change that.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. I shall contact my Senators and asked them what are they going to do about it

[dflprincess]

9. Isn't Obama scheduled to speak to the NAIC as well?

I wonder if we'll get to hear what BS he hands them about his insurance bill.

[hulka38]

11. Well shy of a billion dollars to keep the insurance company monopoly..

The whores are good and cheap in DC.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

14. Democrats should send back any health insurance company's money form this election

show the public what you are made of

[derby378]

16. For starters, here's what Nancy Pelosi's campaign committee got from Big Insurance in 2010

$6,500 - Blue Cross/Blue Shield ($3,000 from executives, $3,500 from PAC)
$5,000 - America's Health Insurance Plans ($2,500 from executives, $2,500 from PAC)

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=2010&cid=N00007360&type=I

[bornskeptic]

17. Looks rather meager compared with over $110,000 from associations of doctors doesn't it?n/t

[derby378]

20. She should still return it - keeping it sends a bad message

And some of those doctor's associations work hand-in-hand with Big Insurance. I've seen it happen before.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. Yes I think so, tiny compared with Joe Lieberman's million plus

http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2009/10/joe-lieberman-i-feel-relevant.html

[bornskeptic]

18. I thought that according to DU they got everything they wanted in the healthcare bill.

Why on earth would they be trying to block ll those provisions that they love so much?

[nightrain]

19. they can get more

[Rosa Luxemburg]

22. it's shocking! It is a disservice to our country

[TheKentuckian]

23. A lot of decent and honest folks can't grasp avarice nor see plots

Much of my anger stems from knowingly setting up this very kind of situation.
The states cannot stand against this kind of money and whatever comes out now will be systematically eroded.

Did you think the 2,000 pages hammered everything out and the next steps would be to add a rule here and there and maybe a public option down the line?

You are far too trusting.