To influence Senate health debate, lobbyists' public voices getting louder

As the Senate commences its health care debate, lobbyists are lining up, Roll Call reports. Tactics include television ads, memos, factsheets, abortion-rights activists' "DC Lobby Day," and signs in Washington's subway stations. Already in the queue are those supporting the bill, including Health Care for America Now and the think tank Third Way, special interest groups Planned Parenthood and the American Association for Justice. Those opposed include Conservatives for Patients' Rights and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Roth and Murray, 12/1)..

One group that is harder to pin down is doctors. Roll Call reports in a separate story: The American Medical Association lent support to House Democrats as they were passing their bill, but that lobbying group only represents some physicians: "parochial concerns and broader ideological differences remain over how health care reform should be accomplished." Some state physician groups have come out against the bills (Roth, 11/30).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.