Hillarysworld

In the first six months of 2009 alone, the health care sector has given $11.4 million in campaign contributions to members of Congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. Campaign contributors - from insurance companies to hospitals to doctors - are showering Wisconsin members of Congress with donations.

"There's tons of money coming in," said Mike Klein, of the Sunlight Foundation, who argues that the health care sector has significantly boosted its campaign donations to Congress in an attempt to get "a seat at the table" as the debate over health reform takes shape.

In Wisconsin, insurance giant Blue Cross/Blue Shield or people who work for the company are among the top campaign contributors to Rep. Paul Ryan's political committees so far this year with $10,000 in donations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Janesville Republican has collected more money from the insurance industry - $493,000 - than from any other interest group during his 10 years in Congress.

Top donors for Madison Democrat Tammy Baldwin this year include the National Association of Retail Druggists, which has given $2,000 to her campaign. Doctors, nurses and other health professionals have made roughly $295,000 in donations to Baldwin since she was elected to the House in 1998.

Rep. Ron Kind, a Democrat from La Crosse, has received $10,000 from the American College of Radiology, making it one of his biggest donors during the 2010 election cycle. Health professionals have given Kind $335,000 in donations since his first congressional election in 1996, putting them among his top contributors.

All three Wisconsin members are playing large roles in the unfolding debate over health reform - the lawmakers each serve on key committees crafting the legislation in the House. Baldwin and Kind have been able to shape aspects of the legislation, and Ryan has become one of the leading voices against the current Democratic proposals.

Other Wisconsin lawmakers also are getting contributions from such groups as the American Hospital Association, the Orthopaedic Association and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. In all, the health sector has given at least $200,000 to the state's congressional delegation this year.

Lawmakers deny influence

But Wisconsin members say the contributions aren't influencing the positions that they are taking on the health reform legislation that they are now working on, even as they admit that special interest groups do hold sway on Capitol Hill.

"Everybody knows where I stand," said Ryan, who has been pushing against a Democratic proposal to create government-run insurance to compete with insurance companies. "If people agree with my principles, then they support me. If they don't, they don't."

Baldwin also says she has been clear about her positions on the issue since she ran for Congress on a pledge to reform health care and offer universal insurance coverage. Kind, who initially voted against the bill in a committee vote but vowed to support the legislation after congressional leaders agreed to a few changes that he was advocating, said his focus is on "trying to produce the best bill possible."

Majority party gets more

Since Democrats took control of Congress in 2006, health care industry donors have been giving more campaign cash to Democrats than Republicans. Democrats have received about 63% of the health sector's donations so far this year. Overall, the industry appears to be on track to spend more on campaign contributions than in previous years, said David Levinthal, of the Center for Responsive Politics.

"They want the opportunity to get in front of the members of Congress who are perhaps on the verge of revolutionizing the entire health care system," he said.

It's a tactic that seems to work, Klein and others say.

"It's only human nature that people who are supporting you financially and who you interact with, you're going to give their arguments more credence than people you never talk to," Klein said.

In the midst of the debate, a number of lawmakers are holding fund-raisers thrown by health care lobbyists or organized around discussions on health care.

In May, executives of major insurance companies, hospitals and health care firms paid $10,000 or more a person to attend a fund-raiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headlined by Sen. Max Baucus, whose Senate Finance Committee is crafting the health care bill in the Senate.

Last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley and two other Republican senators appeared at a $5,000-a-plate fund-raiser for the National Republican Senatorial Committee that was billed as a "round-table on health care issues."

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/52273217.html