Insurers Unleash Largest Lobbying Effort Ever
According to the Washington Post, the largest U.S. insurance companies have hired more than 350 retired veterans of Congress and other governmental posts to lobby against meaningful health care reform; “the tactic is so widespread that three of every four major health-care firms have at least one former insider on their lobbying payrolls.”
The effort is breaking all records; insurance and pharmaceutical companies are spending more than $1.4 million a day on the campaign. Among those hired to influence Congress are former House majority leaders Dick Armey (R-Tex.) and Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), who are being paid by a New Jersey-based drug company. Former Senator Richard Tarplin, who now runs a lobbying firm called Tarplin Strategies, explains, “For people like me who are on the outside and used to be on the inside, this is great, because there is a level of trust in these relationships.”
