Republicans Turn To Insurance Company Lobbyists To Turn Back Health Care Reform

John Boehner and company are looking to their old K Street friends to overturn health care legislation.

Three recently hired Republican aides — two set to work in senior positions on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, and one for soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner — spent the past years lobbying on behalf of insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other corporate interest groups with a vested interest in weakening or repealing the law.

Two weeks ago, incoming Energy and Commerce chair Fred Upton announced he’d hired Gary Andres to be his staff director.

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Andres served as Vice Chairman of Public Policy and Research for Dutko Worldwide, where, according to congressional public disclosure forms, he lobbied for insurance giant UnitedHealth Group and for a corporate umbrella organization called the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform.

Ironically, that now-defunct coalition advocated for policies consistent with the Affordable Heath Care Act. And Andres will have more lobbyists to play with.

He’ll be joined on the Energy and Commerce staff by Howard Cohen, president of the health care lobbying firm HC Associates, who has lobbied for major health care trade associations including America’s Health Insurance Plans, PhRMA and the Federation of American Hospitals, as well as individual insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.