Health Care Firms drop money on Baucus

Baucus is making out like a bandit! With all this money coming in, will he have our best interests at the table for Health Care Reform?

From the Washington Post:

As liberal protesters marched outside, Sen. Max Baucus sat down inside a San Francisco mansion for a dinner of chicken cordon bleu and a discussion of landmark health-care legislation under consideration by his Senate Finance Committee.

At the table on May 26 were about 20 donors willing to fork over $10,000 or more to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, including executives of major insurance companies, hospitals and other health-care firms.

"Most people there had an agenda; they wanted the ear of a senator, and they got it," said Aaron Roland, a San Francisco health-care activist who paid half price to attend the gathering. "Money gets you in the door. The only thing the other side can do is march around and protest outside."

As his committee has taken center stage in the battle over health-care reform, Chairman Baucus (D-Mont.) has emerged as a leading recipient of Senate campaign contributions from the hospitals, insurers and other medical interest groups hoping to shape the legislation to their advantage. Health-related companies and their employees gave Baucus's political committees nearly $1.5 million in 2007 and 2008, when he began holding hearings and making preparations for this year's reform debate.

Top health executives and lobbyists have continued to flock to the senator's often extravagant fundraising events in recent months. During a Senate break in late June, for example, Baucus held his 10th annual fly-fishing and golfing weekend in Big Sky, Mont., for a minimum donation of $2,500. Later this month comes "Camp Baucus," a "trip for the whole family" that adds horseback riding and hiking to the list of activities.

To avoid any appearance of favoritism, his aides say, Baucus quietly began refusing contributions from health-care political action committees after June 1. But the policy does not apply to lobbyists or corporate executives, who continued to make donations, disclosure records show.

Sen. Baucus has some "splainin" to do! Does he really have the best interest for the American people or his pocket book?

Everyone is so worried about how to pay for this and many that I have talked to about healthcare would rather pay a tax than give money to an insurance company. And why don't they bring up more often that insurance companies do get in between you and your doctor and refuse necessary tests and operations often.

Surprise, Baucus doesn't change anything!

From TPMDC:

Good Cop, Bad Cop? Baucus Says All Options Still On The Table
By Brian Beutler - July 9, 2009, 9:49AM

After telling Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) to put a public option in his health care bill, and strip it of a financing provision that would tax employer-provided health care benefits, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to assure Republicans that he wasn't abandoning bipartisanship. Now, Baucus is saying much the same.

"Everything's on the table," was Baucus' mantra yesterday. "By far the better approach is a bipartisan approach to get this moving."

These are palliative words, but they don't seem to have changed momentum on the Hill. Most indications suggest two key provisions that were recently expected to be included in the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill--health care co-operatives and the benefits tax--are on life support. That pleases reformers, but also makes them nervous. They abhor the co-op model--preferring a public insurance plan instead--and though their feelings about taxing benefits are mixed, they see no reason to ignite controversy when there are plenty of other, more-popular ways to finance reform. But at the same time, Finance is now way, way behind schedule, and there are precious few days left for them to complete work on a bill, merge it with the HELP Committee's bill, debate the final product on the floor, and bring it to a vote.

It seems that Reid really can't control his Senators and Baucus is hard headed and won't listen to anyone. Not Reid, Obama, or his constituents. How can a Committee Chairman think he has more power to do what he wants over the President and the Senate Majority Leader and a majority of the Democratic Senators?

UPDATE:
Report: Reid Promises Bipartisanship To Senate GOP
The Hill reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) met with a group of Republican Senators yesterday, assuring them that he was still committed to a bipartisan process on health care reform despite the new Democratic supermajority. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) said that Reid "understands the enormity of this issue and the challenges it presents and that it's most important to be able to build a bipartisan consensus. If that requires more time, it requires more time."