Opponents of House health reform bill got 15% more in industry contributions than supporters

Opponents of House health reform bill got 15% more in industry contributions than supporters. http://ow.ly/AKcj

by Michael Beckel on November 8, 2009

The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed its version of a landmark health insurance reform bill Saturday night, 220-215, and opponents of the measure have received an average of 15 percent more from health industry and health insurance interests over the past 20 years, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis has found.

All but one of the 177-member caucus of the Republican Party opposed the bill, as did 39 members of the Democratic Party. The Center for Responsive Politics found that these members of Congress received an average of $502,650 from health industry and health insurance companies and employees since 1989.

The lone Republican vote in favor of the measure came from Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.), who beat embattled Democrat incumbent William Jefferson in a special election last year. In August of this year, Jefferson was convicted on corruption charges. Cao is viewed as one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents, representing a district carried by President Barack Obama during the 2008 election.

The Center further found that Cao, along with the 219 members of the Democratic Party that supported this legislation received an average of $437,100 from health industry and health insurance companies and employees since 1989.

On average, opponents received $65,550 -- or 15 percent -- more from these special interests than supporters over the past 20 years.

The CRP analysis looked at all contributions from the political action committees and employees associated with health sector companies, as well as employees and PACs affiliated with finance sector insurance companies that also sell health insurance.

Democrats praised the health insurance reform legislation, which President Obama backs, as a historic measure that would extend health insurance coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. The bill's chief sponsor is Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.). It is one of the administration's top priorities, and has been debated for months, as Capital Eye detailed in the "Diagnosis: Reform" series earlier this year.

Known as the Affordable Health Care for America Act, H.R. 3962 will include reforms for Americans with health insurance as well, such as prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, capping citizens' out-of-pocket expenses and requiring insurance companies to pay for benefits with no annual or lifetime benefit limits. It also establishes preventive care coverage without co-pays, closes the Medicare Part D "donut hole" for prescription drug coverage and allows children to remain on their parents' health care plans until their 27th birthdays.

It further mandates that individuals have health insurance, establishes subsidies for low-income Americans to purchase insurance and creates a new health insurance exchange and public health insurance option for those without insurance or those who lose their existing coverage.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the bill will reduce the federal deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years. The bill will cost $894 billion, less than the $900 billion price tag set by President Obama, according to the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Republicans and other critics decried the bill as an unwise expansion of the federal government. They argued that the bill would raise taxes, add unnecessary regulations and hamstring private sector innovations in the health sector. They suggested the bill -- especially the creation of a public health insurance option -- would shake up the existing plans of families and insurance offerings of businesses. They argued it would lead people to lose their coverage and have fewer health-related choices. The bill, they concluded, would be job killing and "freedom killing," in the words of many Republican lawmakers, while extending an inefficient federal bureaucracy.

Before the bill finally passed, the House added an amendment regarding abortion policy sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). His amendment prohibits federal dollars from funding abortions within the bill's public health insurance plan, except in cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is at risk. It also bans any private plan within the new exchange from funding abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is at risk. It garnered significant opposition among Democrats but near unanimous support from Republicans, with only Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) not voting in support of it. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had pushed lawmakers to support Stupak's amendment and promised to work "to help fashion health care reform legislation that truly protects the life, dignity, health and consciences of all."

The U.S. Senate continues to debate its version of health insurance reform legislation.

Once that chamber passes a bill, a conference committee will meld the two bodies' versions together, and each chamber will need to pass that conference committee version before it goes to Obama's desk.

Democrats hope they'll be able to have a health insurance reform bill signed into law by the end of December or January.

CRP Research Director Jihan Andoni contributed to this report.