Makes you wanna vomit: One senator's healthcare-industry contributions
Thu., Aug. 6 2009 @ 2:03PM
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My not-so-funny joke:
If you really want to piss yourself off while having fun clicking around on cool maps, head over to the Federal Election Commission, which makes it really easy to see, for example, how much Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts banked in his last campaign (and, hell, money from tons of other medical industry interests, too -- like the American Association of Clinical Urologists, who kicked in $5,000).
I'm as big a fan of bathroom humor as the next gal, but the reason that joke wasn't so funny is because, by that point, I was just beginning to look at all of Roberts' contributions from medical interests, and already it was making me sick.
Truth is, there's no easy way to convey in a single blog post the vast amount of money Roberts has banked from health-care interests that are deeply invested in promoting their own interests. But now, as medical industry lobbyists and their friends in the Republican Party are planning to spend Congress' August recess doing everything they can to disrupt civil debate on one of the most crucial issues of our time, I figured I should at least try.
Roberts sits on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He's kept a relatively low profile on health-care reform and, at the moment, his official statement on the issue is noncommittal and not provocative. But he's a textbook example of how Washington is soaked in industry money.
I went through Roberts' 89-page list of campaign contributions from various political action committees (not individuals) from just his 2008 election. (Roberts has been a senator since 1996.) I probably missed some -- to really get a sense of this, you have to be suspicious of vague names like Mylan Inc., VHA Inc. or Covidien in order to figure out that they are, respectively, a generic pharmaceutical company; a national network of health care providers; and a medical device, imaging and pharmaceutical supplier that kicked in $2,000, $2,000 and $3,000.
Most of the other contributors are a lot more obvious. Here's who gave what:
$10,000
Abbott Laboratories Employee PAC
American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
American Association of Orthodontists
American College of Cardiology
American College of Radiology Association
American College of Surgeons
American Health Care Association
Apria Healthcare Inc. (FKA) Homedco Inc
Federation of American Hospitals
HCA Inc. Good Government Fund
Pfizer Inc.
$9,500
National Emergency Medicine
$9,000
American Association for Homecare
American Medical Association
$8,000
National Community Pharmacists Association
$7,500
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Osteopathic Information Association
American Society of Anesthesiologists
American Society of Plastic Surgeons
Eli Lilly and Co.
Triad Hospitals Inc.
$7,000
American Hospital Association
Blue-ac -- Blue Cross Blue Shield Assn.
United Health Group
$6,850
US Oncology Inc.
$6,000
American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery
Bayer Corp.
$5,600
Sunrise Medical Inc.
$5,500
College of American Pathologists
Wellpoint Inc.
Wyeth Good Government Fund
$5,000
American Academy of Dermatology Assn.
American Association of Clinical Urologists
American Association of Neurological Surgeons
American Dental Association
Amgen Inc.
Border Health Federal Inc.
Boston Scientific Corp.
CVS/Caremark Corp.
Doctors' Company
Johnson & Johnson
Lifepoint Hospitals
McKesson Corp. Employees Good Government Fund
Novartis Corp.
Pride Mobility Products Corp.
Vanguard Health Management Inc.
$4,500
AmerisourceBergen Corp.
Biotechnology Industry Organization
National Association of Chain Drug Stores
Ob-Gyns for Women's Health/American Congress of Ob-Gyns
American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Sun Healthcare Group
$4,000
American Clinical Laboratory Assn.
American College of Physicians Services
American Physician Therapy Assn.
American Society of Health System Pharmacists
Baxter Healthcare
Medco Health Solutions
Roche Inc.
Zeneca Inc.
$3,500
American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
America's Health Insurance Plans
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Cooperative of American Physicians
Kinetic Concepts Inc.
Physician Hospitals of America
SmithKline Beecham Corp. (Glaxosmithkline)
$3,000
Association for the Advancement of Psychology Inc./Psychologists for Leg Action Now
Coventry Health Care
Covidien U.S.
Express Scripts Inc.
Genentech Inc.
Genesis Healthcare Corp.
Genzyme
Merck & Col
Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America
$2,750
Pacific Pulmonary Services
Respironics Inc.
$2,699
Advanced Medical Technology Assn.
$2,500
American Academy of Ophthalmology Inc.
American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery
American Optometric Assn.
American Psychiatric Assn.
HCR Manor Care
Kindred Healthcare Inc.
Society of Interventional Radiology
Tenet Healthcare
$2,000
American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
American Gastroenterological Assn.
American Podiatric Medical Assn.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Inc. Employee PAC
Boehringer Ingelheim USA Corp.
Cardinal Health Inc.
Cerner Corp.
Clinical Laboratory Management Assn.
Edwards Lifesciences
Healthsouth Corp.
Hospira Inc.
Invacare Corp.
Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings
Mylan Inc.
Sanofi-Aventis U.S.
Society of Thoracic Surgeons
VHA Inc.
$1,750
Medical Facilities of America Inc.
$1,500
American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists
$1,250
Homecare & Hospice
National Association of Health Underwriters
$1,000
American Academy of Neurology Professional Assn.
American Ambulance Assn.
American Medical Response Inc.
American Occupational Therapy Assn.
American Pharmacists Assn.
American Society for Radiation Oncology
Cephalon Inc.
EMD Serono Inc.
Gentiva Health Services
International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists
Kansas Medical Society
Kidney Care Council
Medimmune Affairs Inc.
Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc.
National Association of Spine Specialists
Pharmerica Corp.
Quest Diagnostics
Society for Vascular Surgery
St. Jude Medical Inc.
A handful of contributions gave less than $1,000, but at this point, who cares.
Pat Roberts is one senator. I'm guessing that if I checked everyone's records, I'd find 99 lists pretty much like this one (perhaps only slightly less egregious for those senators who sit on committees that don't have anything remotely to do with health care).
And I'm not sure I have the stomach to see what I'd find over in the House.
If you want to check my math -- it probably needs it -- here's a PDF of the 89-page report listing all of Roberts' committee contributions. Here's a shorter PDF of contributions just from medical interests.
Update: On August 13, our cartoonist, Travis Fox, did one last bit of math for me: He actually added up all of these contributions. His total, for cartooning purposes: More than $525,000. (The actual total, not counting contributions less than $1,000, was $529,899). His cartoon is here.
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