NEJM -- Campaign Contributions, Lobbying, and the U.S. Health Sector -- An Update

NEJM -- Campaign Contributions, Lobbying, and the U.S. Health Sector -- An Update:

"As of July, people affiliated with the health sector and political action committees (PACs) associated with the sector had contributed about $29 million to presidential candidates, including $8.8 million to Obama, $6.6 million to Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, the former Democratic contender, and $4.7 million to McCain, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org), a nonpartisan organization that researches money in politics. Although these contributions represent less than 3% of the funds raised by presidential candidates, it is remarkable that the health sector has reversed a long-standing pattern of favoring Republican candidates, by contributing substantially more money to Democrats ($17.7 million) than to Republicans ($11.2 million). This trend also holds when the presidential and congressional elections are considered together (see Figure 1): as of July, the health sector had contributed $54.5 million to Democrats and $46.1 million to Republicans. Democrats lead Republicans in contributions from health professionals and from individuals associated with hospitals, nursing homes, or health services or health maintenance organizations. Contributions linked to manufacturers of pharmaceutical and health care products are split about evenly between the parties. The last time Democrats raised more money from health care interests than Republicans was 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected president."

Yaaaayyy! I am certainly getting this vibe from my colleagues more and more lately. You can only have insurers rub your nose in poo for so long before you understand that some (any!) sytem of universal coverage has to be better than this.

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