Senate Finance Committee Health Care Influence Cluster: The Democrats

Last week, I took a look at the circle of former staffers turned health care lobbyists that surround Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus. The Senate Finance Committee is one of the two central committees in the Senate charged with formulating health care reform legislation. Knowing the connections to the health care lobby of all committee members provides us with a glimpse into who may have access to shape the forthcoming legislation. In continuing with mapping Baucus' connections, below you'll find a map of all the committee Democrats and their connections, through former staffers turned health care lobbyists, to various health care lobbies:

The map shows only ten of the thirteen committee Democrats, as OpenSecrets.org does not report any staffers turned health care lobbyists for Sens. Jay Rockefeller, Jeff Bingaman or Bill Nelson. These ten Democrats are connected to a total of 20 former staffers turned health care lobbyists. Sen. Baucus leads all of the committee Democrats with five health care lobbyist connections, and Sen. Chuck Schumer and Tom Carper both have three connections.

These 20 staffers represent approximately 91 different organizations, often overlapping in the clients they handle. The overlap usually occurs when the health care lobbyists are employed at the same firm. This can be seen clearly with David Castagnetti, Sen. Baucus' former chief of staff, and Kelly Bingel, Sen. Blanche Lincoln's former chief of staff. Both Castagnetti and Bingel work for Mehlmen Vogel Castagnetti Inc. and handle nearly all the same clients.

The organizations represented by these 20 health care lobbyists include some of the biggest opponents to center piece of President Obama's health care plan: the public option. These include the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, PhRMA, and various pharmaceutical, medical device and insurance companies. The Senate Finance Committee is seen as the biggest obstacle to the public option.

When it comes to money from the health care and insurance industries, Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, leads the pack. For senators who have not run for the presidency, which requires raising exorbitant amounts of money, Sen. Baucus is ahead of other committee Democrats with Sens. Schumer and Kent Conrad following close behind. See the table below:

For Senate Finance Committee Democrats, the connections to the health care industry are wide and deep. Campaign contributions are high and staffers easily jump ship to lobby their former bosses. The impact of these influence measures are sure to be felt in the debate over the form of health care reform.

Stay tuned later this week as we look at the other side of the committee: the Republicans.

Technical Notes: The "Gmap" interface is courtesy of Google and the UCL Google Maps Image Cutter. The graph/map was generated using the Graph library of Nodebox.

Comments

[expired]

Thank you for showing your support for a public health insurance
option and reform for America's health care system.

Now, please urge your friends and family to sign the petition as
well by giving them this link or forwarding them the message
below:

http://ga3.org/campaign/healthpetition?source=hc_ty

Thank you for supporting this important effort.

Sincerely,

Dick Durbin
Patrick Leahy
Chuck Schumer

[whyisthis41]

well the sutherners finally won the war. Welcome to the plantation y'all. No health care, no education for the living, but lots of bible thumping for the not yet borns. Once here, you are valueless!!

[mtrav]

The party's over, there will be no healthcare reform, ever.

[NoMoreFatCats]

An excellent article! Progressives must make this information public! The cause of affordable healthcare for all is greater than any one politician or party. If we want to be truly sucessful in reforming healthcare,we need to make sure we vote issue -not party. These people need to be replaced by Progressives who will stand up for healthcare! What I am witnessing today, makes me want to be an Independent! The Blue Dog Democrats are taking the side of the insurance industry and not their own base. The only critism I have of this otherwise excellent article is that it does not include Republican names. Lets start with my Representative from Missouri-Roy (no government option) Blunt,who took $183,000 from the insurance industry!

[GuyNelson]

The Obama administration should be applauded for starting a substantive healthcare debate just a few months into the administration. However, the current approach to healthcare seems to be mirroring past failed approaches that dealt primarily with funding and involved only policy elites and lobbyists. If America is to develop a healthcare policy that serves all and is sustainable that policy must be included in and supported by the American Constitution.

Americans clearly understand and accept that government has a limited mandate based on the Constitution. For example, the Constitution assigns government the responsibility for protecting the nation and Americans overwhelmingly support the nation’s allocation of significant resources to maintain and improve its military.

No such government mandate exists for the healthcare needs of the nation.

Although it is not a right of citizenship, America spends more on healthcare than any other developed country. In 2005, American healthcare spending reached 16 percent of GDP. Projections through 2016 are that healthcare spending will reach 19.6 percent of GDP. Despite increased spending millions will not have access to appropriate healthcare services.

Before America can develop a viable and sustainable healthcare system the nation must agree on a definition of healthcare and determine whether it is a privilege or a right which is available to all citizens.

The time is now for America to enhance its constitution by amending it and moving closer to promoting "the general Welfare" of all Americans.

[lysistrata]

Who says we are not a Banana Republic?