House GOP Health Group Stacked With Health Sector Campaign Cash
The House Republican group tasked with working on health care reform is packed with members who have received substantial campaign contributions from the health care sector. Seven members of the House GOP Health Care Solutions Group are in the top ten Republican recipients of health sector campaign cash since 1989. The Group seats the top four Republican recipients of health sector campaign contributions.
The Health Care Solutions Group is headed by Rep. Roy Blunt, a top recipient of health care contributions, who recently claimed that House Republicans do not need to present an alternative bill to the House Democrats bill. Blunt has received $1.6 million from the health sector since he took office in 2007. The congressman’s top donors over the course of his career have been Health Professionals, having given $828,250 to his campaigns.
The House Republican caucus has come under pressure to release a competing bill to the Democrats’ proposal. Minority Leader John Boehner, in a departure from Blunt’s comments, stated that the Republicans would release a proposal of their own. The House Republicans are relying on the Health Solutions Group to produce a Republican reform plan. The public may want to know more about how the industry influence, seen through exceedingly high health sector campaign contributions, may effect such a proposal. The top Republican recipients of health sector cash received spots on the prominent health care group. Rep. Tom Price, only in office since 2005, is the top recipient of contributions from the health care sector, having pulled in $2.1 million over the course of three election campaigns. The top four Republican recipients, who happen to sit on the Health Care Solutions Group, include Rep. Price, Rep. Joe Barton ($2.1 million), Rep. Phil Gingrey ($1.7 million) and Rep. Blunt. Other top health recipients sitting on the Group are Reps. Nathan Deal ($1.3 million), Dave Camp ($1.2 million) and Michael Burgess ($1.2 million).
Put together, the health sector contributions to the 21 member group comprise fully one-quarter of all health sector campaign contributions to the 178 sitting Republican House members. In combined contributions, the group has received $18.6 million from the health sector. That’s a quarter of the $73.1 million that all 178 House GOP members have raised since 1989.
All data comes thanks to OpenSecrets.org.
Health Sector Campaign Contributions to the House GOP Health Care Solutions Group
| Name | Contributions (Career) |
|---|---|
| Price, Tom | $2,126,027.00 |
| Barton, Joe | $2,113,271.00 |
| Gingrey, Phil | $1,783,543.00 |
| Blunt, Roy | $1,653,498.00 |
| Deal, Nathan | $1,334,455.00 |
| Camp, Dave | $1,226,559.00 |
| Burgess, Mike | $1,199,423.00 |
| Boustany, Charles | $1,112,486.00 |
| Shadegg, John | $906,425.00 |
| Johnson, Sam | $846,944.00 |
| Murphy, Tim | $780,322.00 |
| Ryan, Paul | $667,359.00 |
| Herger, Wally | $516,913.00 |
| Graves, Sam | $408,899.00 |
| Brown-Waite, Ginny | $401,755.00 |
| McKeon, Buck | $326,698.00 |
| Kline, John | $297,850.00 |
| Cassidy, Bill | $277,220.00 |
| McMorris Rodgers, Cathy | $259,734.00 |
| Biggert, Judy | $240,650.00 |
| Jenkins, Lynn | $84,600.00 |
| Wittman, Robert | $51,950.00 |
