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Source: Washington Post, July 6, 2009

Sickening Amounts Spent on Healthcare Lobbying
The healthcare industry is spending more than $1.4 million a day on lobbying.

The healthcare industry is waging a "record-breaking influence campaign," spending "more than $1.4 million a day on lobbying," reports the Washington Post. "The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) doubled its spending to nearly $7 million in the first quarter of 2009, followed by Pfizer, with more than $6 million" spent in just three months.

Among the lobbyists are many former Congressional staffers and even former members of Congress, including Dick Armey and Richard Gephardt. The impact is illustrated by a recent meeting in the office of Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus, which "included two former Baucus chiefs of staff: David Castagnetti, whose clients include PhRMA and America's Health Insurance Plans, and Jeffrey A. Forbes, who represents PhRMA, Amgen, Genentech, Merck and others."

The Post "identified more than 350 former government aides, each representing an average of four firms or trade groups." PhRMA leads "the pack in spending and employs 49 former government staff members among its 136 lobbyists." Many of the major lobbyists "remain opposed to the public-insurance option" supported by the Obama administration. PhRMA's head, former Congressman Billy Tauzin, finds the Congress-drug industry revolving door "pretty normal." He asked, "Is it a distortion of baseball to hire coaches who have played baseball?"

Forgetting the fact that the chiropractic profession enjoys none of the good old boys club benefits of the Congress-pharma fraternity and just looking at the numbers, it becomes abundantly clear that the chiropractic profession’s limited foray into lobbying for a seat at the “universal health care” table is unlikely to have any impact on the outcome.

At $1.4 million per day in lobbying spend, the ICA annual total budget is eclipsed in a day and a half. In three days, the total budgets of the ICA and the California Chiropractic Association (our largest state association) are dwarfed.

It takes 4 days of pharma lobbying spend to equal the entire annual budget of the ACA, but that is far better than the 2.5 hours in which the annual budget of COCSA is spent like a drunken sailor on shore leave.

The organizations mentioned are grossly underfunded, as the majority of chiropractors do not belong to any organized group. The old adage “you get what you pay for” is certainly applicable.

Clearly we cannot outspend our health care competitors. And even if we could, we can’t legislate our way into the hearts and minds of health seeking consumers. This can only be accomplished by an organized, well supported public relations, marketing, advertising and patient education campaign that informs the public what chiropractic has to offer and how they can benefit.

Until we tell the public why they need chiropractic care and what’s in it for them with a professional and credible campaign, practicing doctors will never enjoy the prosperity necessary to widely support the associations and colleges that serve the profession and we will never be in a position to have our rights properly represented.