Health insurers Cigna Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc., both with Hartford area operations, bumped up their federal lobbying spending as the health care reform debate in Congress peaked, The Associated Press reports.
Philadelphia-based Cigna, whose national claims operations are in Bloomfield, lifted its spending on federal lobbying by 77 percent in the final quarter of 2009 to $850,000 in the October-to-December period from $480,000 in the final quarter of 2008.
Cigna lobbied on the Healthy Americans Act, the Patient’s Choice Act, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, Medicare issues, and the taxation of employer-sponsored health coverage, among other topics, according to a report filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives.
Besides Congress and the White House, Cigna also lobbied the Congressional Budget Office, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the fourth quarter.
Cigna is the fourth-largest publicly traded health insurer based on enrollment. It operates health care, group disability and life segments in the U.S. It also sells individual insurance in several countries and operates an expatriate business that covers people living outside their home countries.
UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minn., insurer spent $940,000 in the final quarter of 2009, up 12percent from $840,000 in the last quarter of 2008.
Several other health insurers also increased their spending on lobbying in the quarter as the Senate and House of Representatives weighed bills designed to cover millions of uninsured people and curb soaring medical costs.
A large reform bill promises millions of new customers to insurers. But the industry and its investors have worried about the impact an overhaul would have due to the imposition of new taxes and coverage mandates, among other concerns.
UnitedHealth lobbied mostly on reform-related bills and the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009.
Aside from Congress and the White House, the insurer lobbied the Department of Health and Human Services
Among those lobbying for UnitedHealth were Joelle Thornhill, a former staff member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee; Cory Alexander, a former special assistant to the White House North American Free Trade Agreement counselor and former employee of the office of the Democratic Whip and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.; Sohini Gupta Jindal, a former staffer for Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.; and Robyn Lippert, a former employee of the office of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the Senate Judiciary Committee.
UnitedHealth is the largest publicly traded health insurer based on revenue. It also operates segments that sell wellness programs and information services, aside from commercial and government-based coverage.
