Hartford managed care company Aetna Inc. spent $1.6 million lobbying the federal government in the first quarter, slightly more than twice what it spent in the same quarter of 2009, The Associated Press reports.
The insurer lobbied on health care reform as Congress debated and then ultimately passed a measure aimed at covering millions of uninsured Americans.
Aetna also lobbied on a subsidy designed to help unemployed people keep their employer-sponsored health coverage. It lobbied on Medicaid drug rebates, the promotion of generic drugs in Medicare and medical malpractice liability reform, among other issues.
The insurer spent $809,793 lobbying in the first quarter of 2009.
The reform measure passed by Congress will eventually deliver millions of new customers to health insurers. But the industry and its investors have worried about the impact of new taxes and coverage mandates, among other issues, on the industry.
Besides Congress, Aetna also lobbied the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of Management and Budget in the January-to-March period.
Aetna lobbyists included Molly Schild, a former employee of the Senate Finance Committee and a former special assistant to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
