Those Dirty Republican Dogs Trying To Kill Medicare-For-All! Oh...

About a month ago, we took a look at how the health care and insurance industries are mobilizing to kill Medicare-For-All with identical messaging we're hearing from status quo corporate Dems: "The Affordable Care Act works reasonably well and should be improved, not repealed or replaced with a big new public program." Oh what a coincidence! Or maybe not. NY Times reported Robert Pear made the point that "even before Democrats finish drafting bills to create a single-payer health care system, the health care and insurance industries have assembled a small army of lobbyists to kill Medicare-For-All, an idea that is mocked publicly but is being greeted privately with increasing seriousness. In DC-parlance 'seriousness' means 'financially.'"

So which evil Republican bastards are running the campaign to kill Medicare-For-All? Let's start with the jefe: slimy lobbyist and Hillary Clinton lieutenant, Lauren Crawford Shaver. So not exactly a Republican... a corporate Dem, meaning she's probably ok with abortions and gays and voting rights for minorities but otherwise... a Republican bastard. In the last few days Open Secrets decided to see where all the money is coming from to kill Medicare For All. (And please keep in mind that there is also a mighty flow of money headed towards defeating candidates who support Medicare-For-All, much of it through the DCCC which almost exclusively recruits candidates who agree to support an incremental, corporate-friendly approach. The Blue America thermometer on the right is for House candidates who support Medicare-For-All; period. We expect that list of candidates to get a lot longer as we start approaching 2020.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers and health insurance companies don’t agree on much these days. As Congress introduces bills to address rising drug prices, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers are engaged in a lobbying and public relations war with drugmakers over who is to blame.

But the giants of the healthcare industry agree on one thing: Medicare for All cannot become law.

Partnership for America’s Health Care Future (PAHCF), a group comprised of major drugmakers, insurance companies and private hospitals, has spent the last several months lobbying members of Congress, running online ads and working with the media to drive down popularity of Medicare for All, a single-payer health platform that continues to gain popularity in the Democratic party.

The partnership includes some of the biggest names in the healthcare industry, including the American Medical Association (AMA), Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

All told, the members of the partnership have a lot of money and influence to spend on Capitol Hill. They spent a combined $143 million lobbying in 2018 alone, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The development of a broad anti-Medicare for All coalition isn’t surprising. As with every time a major U.S. health care reform bill is discussed, industry giants have a lot to lose and a major incentive to fight back.

John McDonough, a Harvard health professor who helped craft the Affordable Care Act (ACA), would hear from industry lobbyists every day as he worked on the bill. He noted the final version of the bill-- with many concessions, including the removal of a public option-- passed with support from major industry players including PhRMA, AMA and FAH-- all of whom now oppose Medicare for All.

“I think, quite honestly, given how close we were to losing the whole thing, had the pharmaceutical industry been on the other side of the fence in 2010 there never would have been an ACA,” McDonough said. “It would’ve been an afternoon’s work for them to kill it.”

Medicare for All is different, McDonough said, because there isn’t as much room for lawmakers to make concessions. Depending on the version of the bill, it would likely create stricter regulation on drug prices, eliminate the need for some private insurers and cut the bottom line for hospitals that rely on private insurance reimbursement rates.

“When you point a gun at somebody and say ‘we’re gonna kill you,’ don’t be surprised when they fight like it’s life or death,” McDonough said. “The ACA was not life or death for the insurance industry. Medicare for All is a death notice for a large chunk of the U.S. healthcare industry and they know it.”

An insurance industry insider told The Hill in 2018 that the group had originally planned to stop Medicare for All from becoming a litmus test for Democrats in 2020. The Intercept obtained an internal document noting its lobbyists and were successful in getting congressional Democratic candidates to adopt the partnership’s “moderate” position on health care such as improving the Affordable Care Act.

That strategy didn’t appear to work among Democratic presidential candidates though, as many major 2020 contenders, including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), support the health care overhaul.

PAHCF recently launched efforts to get the public on their side. The group has spent at least $80,594 on Facebook ads since it released its first ads in late January and at least $13,000 on Twitter ads.

According to Twitter’s ad transparency database, the partnership is using FP1 Strategies, an Arlington, Virginia consultant that took in $18 million from conservative groups in 2018, to place at least some of its ads.

Though it might be best known for producing ads that helped take down Democrat Randy Bryce in the 2018 Wisconsin 1st District race, FP1 has delved into the healthcare world before.

Among FP1’s 2018 clients was New Yorkers for Excellent Health Care, a new super PAC funded by Greater New York Hospital Association management that spent $341,093 in support of former Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY). The firm also notes it helped the Consumer Healthcare Products Association defeat legislation to require prescriptions for certain medications.

PAHCF isn’t the only group working to defeat Medicare for All-- its allies began their campaigns long ago and will continue to do so. America’s Health Insurance Plans, for example, announced a six-figure ad campaign in June 2018 to spotlight millions of Americans covered by employer-provided health coverage. PAHCF has repeated similar numbers in its public relations push.

Medicare for All is up against serious challenges-- and it’s unclear whether the measure has enough muscle, or money, behind it.

Though the bill has drawn praise from several major unions, including National Nurses United, National Union of Healthcare Workers, American Federation of Teachers and Service Employees International Union, few industry groups-- outside of those dedicated to backing single-payer health care-- publicly support the bill.

The Medicare for All bill (H.R.1384) introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) on Feb. 27 has 106 co-sponsors in the House, far fewer than it needs to pass, and does not have the support of House Democratic leaders.

Every attempt to completely overhaul the healthcare system has failed or become watered down due to opposition from the healthcare industry, from President Harry Truman’s universal health care plan in 1949 to President Bill Clinton’s universal health care plan in 1993. Supporters of Medicare for All are hoping this time will be different.

Eva Putzova and Marie Newman are running against reactionary Blue Dogs who are not backing Medicare-For-All, respectively Tom O'Halleran in Arizona and Dan Lipinski in Chicagoland. Eva told me that every person she speaks to "tells me that a single payer type of healthcare system is one of their top issues. A Flagstaff business owner has been unable to afford to provide healthcare insurance to his employees under the current system and is hopeful that Medicare for All will be embraced by Congress. For him, this would level the playing field, helping him attract and retain employees. Medicare for All is very popular among the regular people working for our small businesses, who now have to make choices between buying health insurance and paying rent."

Medicare-For-All is a top issue for Marie too and she told us that she finds that "Grassroots organizations, advocates and candidate campaigns are the best vehicles to leverage the power and support of the 70% of Americans who want Medicare For All. We have all made incredible progress. We need to keep pushing together. We can do this."



UPDATE: Audrey Denney

Audrey is taking on radical right Trump enabler Doug LaMalfa in the very rural northeast corner of California. She's running on a common sense populist platform that includes programs like Medicare For All. This morning, she wrote that "Every day when I talk to voters part of my job is building consensus around important issues and advocating for solutions that make sense. When it comes to a single payer solution, I always start by sharing a personal example of the healthcare system’s failure in my life. Then I ask others to share-- everyone has a personal example of this. Then I focus of the shared common values that we all want out of the healthcare system. By building consensus around these shared common values-- people become collaborative rather than combative. They are then positioned to learn about and support solutions like single payer. We build political will around issues by advocating for issues that matter on the grassroots level-- one on one-- and encouraging others to do the same."