Health-care lobbyists continue spending spree

By Dan Eggen
WashPost

The August recess did little to slow the Washington lobbying frenzy over health-care reform, as insurers, drugmakers and hospitals continued to spend millions to attempt to sway the emerging legislation, according to new disclosure reports filed with Congress.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drugmakers' main trade group, shattered records again by spending nearly $7 million on lobbying from July through September, the quarterly disclosure records show. The outlay brings PhRMA's total so far this year to nearly $20 million, just shy of the group's entire lobbying budget for 2008.

Other big health-care spenders in the third quarter included Pfizer Inc. ($5.42 million); the American Hospital Association ($3.8 million); the American Medical Association ($3.95 million); Amgen Inc. ($3 million); Bayer Corp. ($2.45 million); and America's Health Insurance Plans ($2.4 million).

(More here.)