Politics

Secret Money Abounds in Health Reform Fight

By Anne Landman

Interest groups working to influence health reform legislation have jointly contributed a record $200 million to advertising campaigns to sway lawmakers, but figuring out just who these groups represent is often tricky. Many purposely adopt names that obscure their origins, and the law requires they only reveal minimal information, like overall revenue and expenses. Support for these groups is coming from industries with a financial stake in the debate, unions or charitable foundations with a political bent, helping enrich previously obscure groups. The Institute for Liberty, for example, was previously a one-man operation that in 2008 pulled in under $25,000 in revenue and had only a post office box. Now it operates out of a downtown D.C. office and is running a $1 million anti-health care reform advocacy campaign. The group's president, Andrew Langer, refused to offer any information about the group's leap in funding. The Parternship to Improve Patient Care was created by the drug industry in 2008 to oppose medical effectiveness studies that might help determine what health insurance companies must cover. The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest is an offshoot of the Pacific Research Institute, which has taken money from Philip Morris, Pfizer, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). The anti-government group Americans for Prosperity, that was instrumental in organizing the raucus "tea party protests,", has been connected with the conservative Koch Family, owners of the largest private energy company in the U.S. "It's sort of like money-laundering their PR," said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy, the group that operates PRWatch.org "A lot of these groups are heavily funded by corporations and then don't reveal it. They try to imply that they are funded primarily by individuals, but that's clearly not the case."

Full post as published by PR Watch on January 11, 2010 (boomark / email).