Health Insurers Funded Chamber Attack Ads PBS Special Forthcoming

[Guest guest]

PBS info:

_http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamasdeal/_

(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamasdeal/)

National Journal about the health insurer/ Chamber funding:

_http://undertheinfluence.nationaljournal.com/2010/01/health-insurers-funded

-chamber.php_

(http://undertheinfluence.nationaljournal.com/2010/01/health-insurers-funded-cha\

mber.php)

Health Insurers Funded Chamber Attack Ads

By H. Stone

Updated at 10:30 am 1/13/10

Just as dealings with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats

soured last summer, six of the nation's biggest health insurers began

quietly pumping big money into third-party television ads aimed at killing or

significantly modifying the major health reform bills moving through

Congress.

That money, between $10 million and $20 million, came from Aetna, Cigna,

Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Wellpoint,

according to two health care lobbyists familiar with the transactions. The

companies are all members of the powerful trade group America's Health

Insurance Plans.

The funds were solicited by AHIP and funneled to the U.S. Chamber of

Commerce to help underwrite tens of millions of dollars of television ads by

two

business coalitions set up and subsidized by the chamber. Each insurer

kicked in at least $1 million and some gave multimillion-dollar donations.

" There's no question that AHIP has quietly solicited monies from their

members which were funneled over to the chamber for their ads, " said a source.

The total donated by the health insurers, according to one estimate, was as

much as one-quarter of the chamber's total health care advertising budget.