Lawmakers Crafting Health Care Reform Heavily Invested In Health Care Companies

Wall Street Journal:

Members of Congress who are crafting health-reform proposals also have investments in companies in the industry.

Based on the broad financial ranges that members of Congress listed in disclosure forms, the personal investments of some 30 key lawmakers in health-industry players range somewhere from $11 million to $27 million, the Washington Post reported over the weekend. Here are some data points that the newspaper cites:

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[tandrmcdonald]

There are two million, two hundred nine thousand, two hundred fifty-two reasons why Lindsey Graham doesn't want health care reform. Stick a dollar sign in front of the above number; that's how much he's received from the health care and insurance industries to keep the status quo. No wonder this runt doesn't want health care reform or single payer/public insurance.

[Hansharriet]

The biggest laugh is that we call this a Democracy. Our Congress consist of mostly prostitutes who sell themselves to the biggest bidders.
No, I really have to apologize to prostitutes, because prostitutes are giving people something for their money and have set prices for their services as sex workers. For most of our Representatives and Senators, it is really an auction for their services.
This is legalized corruption. Sometimes some of these elected officials are doing something that is illegal and are prosecuted. But Congress is supposed to write the laws of our country and a lot of laws are written by the Lobbyists of the Companies who are donating funds to the law makers.

[RightsGuy]

SENATOR GRASSLEY (R-IOWA) IS WORKING WITH BAUCUS TO BLOCK SINGLE PAYER AND EVEN A PUBLIC OPTION. Grassley is an important player in healthcare reform as he’s the senior Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee.

Senator Grassley has taken a lot of money the pharmaceutical and health insurance industry over the years. Yet he launches witch-hunts against others for doing the same. POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK? Is this why he is blocking single-payer healthcare reform from even being on the table—because he’s in tHe pockets of the industry?

According to OpenSecrets.org from 2003 – 2008 alone, Senator Grassley has taken donations from:

The Insurance Industry: $643,643

Health Professionals $812,077

Pharmaceut­icals/Heal­th Products Industry $352,222

Hospitals/Nursing Homes $288,895

Health Services/HMOs $245,416

THAT’S A GRAND TOTAL OF: $2,342,253.

GRASSLEY’S 2ND HIGHEST CONTRIBUTOR IS BLUE CROSS / BLUE SHIELD.

Grassley, Baucus, and other legislators put the profits of their contributors ahead of Americans’ health and lives .

It is time to remove Grassley from his “leadership” of health care reform, and to vote him OUT of office.

TAKE ACTION:

1. Write, email, and Fax Senator Grassley and ask him to PUT SINGLE PAYER ON THE TABLE AND TO INCLUDE SINGLE PAYER REPRESENTATIVES IN ALL MEETINGS AND HEARINGS.

Call Grassley’s office: [phone]
FAX Grassley here: [phone] and here: [phone]

Email Grassley here: http://grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm

[RightsGuy]

Here's the rest of the list:

1,843,332 Nelson,Ben NE D
1,817,428 Isakson,Johnny GA R
1,772,079 Lautenberg,Frank NJ D
1,744,191 Reed,Jack RI D
1,732,889 Shelby,Richard AL R
1,712,830 Bingaman,Jeff NM D
1,692,289 Snowe,Olympia ME R
1,553,845 Feingold,Russ WI D
1,470,789 Mikulski,Barbara MD D
1,436,580 Martinez,Mel FL R
1,434,041 Inhofe,James M OK R
1,410,413 Coburn,Tom OK R
1,390,133 Enzi,Mike WY R
1,358,794 Levin,Carl MI D
1,358,024 Corker,Bob TN R
1,321,802 Crapo,Mike ID R
1,282,609 Brownback,Sam KS R
1,269,714 Carper,Tom DE D
1,218,518 Murray,Patty WA D
1,135,751 Dorgan,Byron ND D
1,121,979 Hagel,Chuck NE R
1,118,047 Bennett,Robert UT R
1,013,662 Cochran,Thad MS R

Thank you to Philip Taylor who posted these on: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/16/obama-weekly-address-two_n_204236.html

[RightsGuy]

You can find how much your Senators and Representatives have received from corporate interests here: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/index.php

Here is a list on healthcare and insurance contributions received.

$ Funding -------Sen­ator------­Health Care Related contributions received

17,563,956 McCain,John AZ R
15,747,735 Kerry,John MA D
8,298,887 Specter,Arlen PA D
6,260,466 Baucus,Max MT D
6,053,840 McConnell,Mitch KY R
5,551,547 Harkin,Tom IA D
5,052,273 Lieberman,Joe CT I
5,014,639 Hatch,Orrin UT R
4,662,222 Brown,Sherrod OH D
4,515,337 Dodd,Chris CT D
4,334,201 Grassley,Chuck IA R
4,331,057 Burr,Richard NC R
4,213,855 Kyl,Jon AZ R
4,178,299 Cornyn,John TX R
4,109,512 Kennedy,Edward M MA D
4,037,004 Alexander,Lamar TN R
3,900,134 Ensign,John NV R
3,576,721 Cardin,Ben MD D
3,340,082 Rockefeller,Jay WV D
3,286,198 Conrad,Kent ND D
3,247,794 Coleman,Norm MN OLD R
3,245,066 Schumer,Charles NY D
3,159,183 Chambliss,Saxby GA R
3,050,694 Smith,Gordon OR R
2,880,528 Hutchison,Kay Bailey TX R
2,870,616 Durbin,Dick IL D
2,817,100 Lincoln,Blanche AR D
2,650,628 Voinovich,George OH R
2,634,653 Bunning,Jim KY R
2,565,701 Feinstein,Dianne CA D
2,535,864 Landrieu,Mary LA D
2,518,631 Menendez,Robert NJ D
2,515,612 Lugar,Richard G IN R
2,510,887 Reid,Harry NV D
2,398,142 DeMint,James W SC R
2,369,666 Collins,Susan M ME R
2,357,319 Nelson,Bill FL D
2,356,135 Bond,Christopher S (Kit) MO R
2,347,178 Sessions,Jeff AL R
2,320,746 Stabenow,Debbie MI D
2,275,049 Wyden,Ron OR D
2,251,954 Thune,John SD R
2,227,269 Johnson,Tim SD D
2,212,674 Bayh,Evan ID D
2,209,252 Graham,Lindsey SC R
2,020,516 Roberts,Pat KS R
1,937,842 Gregg,Judd NH R
1,936,771 Boxer,Barbara CA D
1,935,759 Wicker,Roger MS R
1,916,425 Vitter,David LA R

[elbzee]

Gee, and we wonder why our system sucks so badly and our government can't stop it. Seems pretty effin clear to me why.

I honestly believe a lot of our problems are the result of putting millionaires & billionaires in charge of legislating EVERYTHING.