[rad-green] Lawmakers Admit Lobbyists Helped Them Write Attacks on Medicare for All

*https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/02/insurance-industry-clearly-terrified-says-sanders-lawmakers-admit-lobbyists-helped
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/02/insurance-industry-clearly-terrified-says-sanders-lawmakers-admit-lobbyists-helped>Common
Dreams          December 2, 2019*





*Insurance Industry Is Clearly 'Terrified,' Says Sanders, As Lawmakers
Admit Lobbyists Helped Them Write Attacks on Medicare for All"We are taking
on the big-money interests who have an army of lobbyists trying to defeat
Medicare for All."by Jake Johnson, staff writer*

*Protesters supporting 'Medicare for All' hold a rally outside PhRMA
headquarters April 29, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty
Images)*

Documents obtained
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/02/state-lawmakers-acknowledge-lobbyists-helped-craft-their-op-eds-attacking-medicare-for-all/>
by
the *Washington Post* Monday showed that lobbyists helped three state
lawmakers draft op-eds this year attacking Medicare for All, a revelation
Sen. Bernie Sanders highlighted as further evidence that the healthcare
industry is "terrified" of the push for single-payer.

"We are taking on the big-money interests who have an army of lobbyists
trying to defeat Medicare for All," tweeted
<https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1201544693257003019> Sanders, a 2020
Democratic presidential candidate. "They are terrified that the American
people recognize that healthcare is a human right. They're right to be
terrified."

The *Post*'s Jeff Stein reported Monday that Montana state Rep. Kathy
Kelker (D), Montana state Sen. Jen Gross (D), and an aide to Ohio state
Sen. Steve Huffman (R) admitted in interviews that lobbyists helped craft
their recent op-eds criticizing Medicare for All. The three columns
appeared in local newspapers; none of them disclosed that they were written
with the assistance of lobbyists.

"This is just the latest reason we need to reform this broken system where
greedy corporations determine who can get medical treatment in America."
—Wendell Potter, Business for Medicare for All

Kelker and Gross "acknowledged in interviews that editorials
<https://missoulian.com/opinion/columnists/an-aca-compromise-that-benefits-all-americans/article_6bd17dd1-dd59-5b07-ad77-11cb07b915b8.html>
they published
<https://billingsgazette.com/opinion/columnists/guest-opinion-single-payer-isn-t-realistic-u-s-health/article_d84c647f-5d31-529d-8a65-ff99a99d32d9.html>separately
about the single-payer health proposal included language provided by John
MacDonald, a lobbyist and consultant in [Montana] who disclosed in private
emails that he worked for an unnamed client," Stein reported.

Kathleen DeLand, an Ohio-based lobbyist, assisted Huffman with his
September 30 *Sidney Daily News* op-ed
<https://www.sidneydailynews.com/opinion/columns/156801/medicare-for-all-not-a-workable-solution>,
which criticized Medicare for All as a "one-size-fits-all approach" that
"does not work for healthcare."

Huffman's aide told the *Post* that he believes DeLand was working for the
Partnership for America's Health Care Future (PAHCF), an industry front
group formed last year
<https://theintercept.com/2018/11/20/medicare-for-all-healthcare-industry/> to
fight Medicare for All.

"DeLand's emails to the Ohio lawmaker's staff include the acronym for the
group in the subject line: 'PAHCF op-ed - OH - Huffman[3]. docx,'" Stein
reported, citing documents provided to the *Post* by non-profit advocacy
group Medicare for All Now.

MacDonald, who edited the Montana lawmakers' columns, would not confirm to
the *Post* whether he was working for PAHCF.

"The emails appear to show extensive outside involvement in the Montana
lawmakers' op-eds," Stein reported. "In a Microsoft Word document,
MacDonald removed three paragraphs from a draft of Kelker's op-ed that
pointed out that the United States 'clearly spends significantly more on
healthcare per capita than other developed nations.' He also deleted a
table from the lawmaker's original draft showing that the United States has
higher healthcare spending per capita than France, Germany, Norway, and
Switzerland."

Wendell Potter, president of advocacy group Business for Medicare for All,
said the emails "blow open what I saw firsthand and revealed as a health
insurance whistleblower."

"These companies and their lobbyists will stoop to whatever it takes, no
matter how grotesque, to deny people the lifesaving coverage they need,"
Potter, a former health insurance executive, told the *Post*. "This is just
the latest reason we need to reform this broken system where greedy
corporations determine who can get medical treatment in America."

In a series of tweets
<https://twitter.com/wendellpotter/status/1201567796787916801> Monday,
Potter called on PAHCF to "come clean about any other op-eds secretly
authored by the health insurance industry to discredit Medicare for All."

"This move by the industry is built on a decades old corporate playbook
used previously by Big Tobacco and the NRA," said Potter. "Placing
industry-crafted talking points under the byline of trusted local leaders
is a tried and true way to manipulate the public."

Larry Noble, who served as general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center
and the Federal Election Commission, echoed Potter's ethical concerns.

"It's disturbing," Noble said of the emails in an interview with the *Post*.
"I think there's a certain ethical obligation to be upfront about who wrote
the editorial."

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