Health Industry Buys Nays on Reform

The Center for Responsive Politics has analyzed the contributions made by the health industry and health insurers to members of Congress. CRP's main finding: those who voted against H.R. 3962, the big health coverage reform bill, on Saturday, received an average of 15% more in contributions from the big health players than those Congresspeople who voted for reform.

Counting up donations since 1989, CRP found the naysayers averaged $502,650 in donations from the health sector and health insurers. Ayesayers (a word, yes?) averaged $437,100 from the same folks over the same 20-year period.

That's still a lot of money for both sides. The correlation seems noteworthy, though I'm sure South Dakota's Blue Dog Congresswoman will say that the suggestion that votes are swayed by campaign donations is just "Ridiculous!"

Say, how has Herseth Sandlin made out with those health & health insurance donors? From the health industry alone (I can't find a separate breakdown of health insurance numbers), she's only received $339,824, less than the average for even the folks who voted aye.

Of course, that's $340K over just eight years, not the full twenty from which CRP draws its averages.

Ridiculous. Just ridiculous.