The Coonridge Digest: Washington is full of well-funded sharks and they bite

Greetings from the Ridge.

Across town from the senate hearings for the potential Supreme Court justice, another lady was introduced as a possible federal appointee.

Dr. Regina Benjamin is a country doctor with a small clinic along the Gulf Coast of Alabama. It’s not her first clinic. Katrina was the second hurricane to destroy her medical facilities. On the day the newest clinic was to reopen it burned to the ground. Mortgaging her own home Dr. Benjamin moved her temporary facilities to a trailer, not missing a day’s work, and began building the third clinic. She said that she used her own private funds for much of her patients’ medicines. "I’m often paid with a pint of oysters or a couple of fish," claimed Dr. Benjamin. "It’s hard to translate that into medical supplies but we get by." Her clinic is so tiny that one nurse said, "We don’t have room to cuss a cat."

And by the way, this doctor makes house calls.

If Regina Benjamin is confirmed as our next Surgeon General, she’ll be meeting with some interesting fellows in the debate over national health care. Let’s say that their backgrounds are somewhat …uh…different.

H. Edward Henway is the CEO of Signa, the country’s 4th-largest insurance company. His company made $102 million in the first quarter of this year while laying off 1100 employees because "times are hard." Although he’s retiring this year he’ll be a player in the health care debate. His salary last year? $11.4 million.

Ron Williams will be involved. He’s the chairman and CEO of Aetna. Last year he personally took home $17.4 million.

McKesson is the largest health care company in the world. John Hammergren, the company’s CEO, was the recipient of a $29.7 million salary last year.

Wait a minute! Wait a minute! What do you mean these guys will be making the decisions on health care? Well… in a manner of speaking.

Hold onto your socks for this one. The health care industry spends $1 ½ million a day to fight health care reform. If you’re reading this in the early morning you might want to back up and take another run at that figure… $1 ½ million a day to make sure things stay the way they are.

When I play poker I shy away from any game requiring more than a one-dollar ante. The stakes in this health care crapshoot seem to be a bit higher. The nation’s largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress to shoot their dice and bend the appropriate ears. According to the Washington Post, three of every four health care firms have at least one former insider on their payroll to make sure the future status is appropriately quo.

The list of the influence peddlers reads like a Who’s Who of Congresses Past.

Former House majority leaders Richard Armey of Texas and Richard Gephardt of Missouri both represent the same New Jersey pharmaceutical firm. I don’t know why politicians fight so hard to be reelected when millions of dollars in lobbying fees await them in retirement.

And oh how the money rolls! Pfizer drug company spent $6 million to lobby Congress in the first quarter of 2009. PhRMA spent $7 million. The actual scorecard is mind-blowing: the drug industry alone is the single largest contributor of lobbying funds to Washington… $900 million between 1998 and 2005. During the same period they donated $89.9 million to federal candidates, three times as much to Republicans as Democrats. The industry has 1,274 registered lobbyists in Washington.

Now that the Democrats hold the reins of power, they’re happily soaking up their share of the bribe money. Senator Max Baucus of Montana, head of the Senate Finance Committee, finds himself the current Queen of the Prom receiving $1.5 million in health-care-related campaign goodies. In June he hosted a fly fishing party in Big Sky, Montana, where for $2,500 you could come drown your worm and voice your concern.

Even if Dr. Benjamin is confirmed, I wonder if she should take the job. When she was trying to keep her clinic open she’d moonlight at nursing homes and in emergency rooms. A devout Roman Catholic and admitted workaholic, she might want to go back to Bayou La Batre, Alabama, keep driving her Toyota with mud flaps from house to house and end the day with a pound of fish to show for her work. Besides, the clinic owes her money and hasn’t been able to pay her in years. According to the chairman of the clinic’s board, she’s due about $300,000.

One of Obama’s goals is to put uninsured people in contact with good doctors. I’m thinking that Dr. B might serve the world better as a traveling country physician. Even though the role of Surgeon General is largely ceremonial, she might want to stick to the crayfish off the Gulf Coast. Washington is full of well-funded sharks and they bite.

You ever in Coonridge, stop by. We may not answer the door but you’ll enjoy the trip.