In a bid to lobby the Federal Government, Minnesota-based health insurer UnitedHealth Group (UNH) spent $660,000 during the first quarter of 2011, which was in line with the comparable period last year but up 14% sequentially.
Lobbying is an activity usually paid by an interest group to promote its position to legislatures by influencing opinion leaders, thereby creating a climate for the change they desire.
UnitedHealth lobbied on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the health care overhaul and Medicare issues.
Apart from Congress and the White House, UnitedHealth, the largest publicly traded health insurer based on revenue, also lobbied the departments of Health and Human Services and Labor, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Federal Reserve System.
One of UnitedHealth’s peers, Cigna Corp. (CI), reportedly spent $280,000 on lobbying the Federal Government during the first quarter of 2011 (down 30% year over year and 18% sequentially). CIGNA primarily lobbied for defending the Medicare Advantage, a form of Medicare delivered by private insurance companies that President Obama has reduced recompense to. The company also lobbied on Part D prescription drug programs, the Open Access to Courts Act of 2009, and the taxation of employer-provided benefits.
Another peer Aetna Inc. (AET), spent $1.1 million on lobbying activity (down 34% year over year but up 9% sequentially) during the first quarter.
The health insurance cartel has shelled out millions of dollars for the past thee years to fight the Health Care reform. The health insurance companies are not comfortable with certain provisions of the Act, such as reimbursement cut to Medicare Advantage Plans, insuring people with pre-existing diseases, compliance with minimum medical ratio requirements, formation of health insurance exchange etc.
The Health Care reform basically aims to bring all the uninsured individuals under its fold, which in turn would add more members to the insurance companies. However, the companies are skeptical about the additional burden that the new provisions would impose on their earnings.
UniteHealth, which derives almost one-fourth of its earnings from Medicare Advantage plan, is most exposed to the Health Care reform that has brought spending cuts in the plan.
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