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I stumbled across this and was shocked. Remember these numbers are the lobbyist donations to congress for only three months, the second quarter of 2009, according to the Washington Post. Can this be true?

Here is the list from the Washington Post taken from 2009. This is dollars spent to influence legislators in Washington during ONLY the second quarter of 2009. They claim it is not from the first two quarters, but just one fiscal quarter. It's scary.

$6.2 million by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
$4.0 million by the AMA
$2.8 million by Blue Cross Blue Shield
$2.3 million by GlaxoSmithKline
$1.8 million by Novartis
$1.7 million by Metlife
$1.5 million by Allstate
$1.6 million by Johnson & Johnson
$2.0 million by America's Health Insurance Plans
$2.0 million by Bayer

$25,900,000 spent by insurance and drug companies to influence legislators in the second THREE months of 2009. Thats about 103,600,000 each year!! And that does not count special election funds. This is just business as usual!!

And all to keep those insane profits rolling in. Whew.

Is this the docs fault? Partly, since they do pay into the AMA. But the real villains here appears to be the pharmaceutical industy and insurance companies, and the insane profits they are making. These profits allow thousands of dollars to be spent EVERY DAY by lobbyists in Washington to influence legislation. Is the healthcare system in the US sick? Seeing these numbers it appears likely to me.

Do you think we need a single payer system for medicine?

Should this be moved to hot topics?

I agree it's nuts. Although we'd have to compare it to numbers spent by other interest groups to know just how nuts it is. The oil or gun industries for example.

Yeah it probably belongs in hot topics......thanks for posting it.

Zari

Hi Zari. Not sure if there are enough folks bothering to check in to have an opinion. Numbers of visits are low, low, low. Most popular place is the chat room.

Carolynn

I live in Massachusetts, where Mitt Romney's "socialist" health care system is working out very well. The first year this was law, my son came down with pneumonia with complications. Fortunately, at my wife's strident insistence, and with some financial help from us, he had signed up for the very expensive COBRA insurance plan. The bill for 5 days in the hospital came out to $26,000.As it was with the insurance it still cost us $5k. Under Obama care my family will save literally thousands of dollars since it forces my fortune 500 employers, who didn't care enough about me, after 20 years on the job, to do it on their own, to allow me to include my unemployed son on our family heath care plan.

It's unfortunate for Mitt that he now has to lie about, perhaps, the greatest achievement of his life. But I'm definitely voting for Obama. !. he saved me money and 2. he hasn't started a single war since he's been elected.