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Sunshine! Well Done, Mr. President

Posted by JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor in Health, Politics.
Jul 23rd, 2009 | Comments

Yesterday we discussed the refusal by the Secret Service to provide a list of health care executives who had visited the President at the White House to discuss policy changes. Shortly after President Obama’s presser, as promised, the list was delivered. I would like to retract my previous comments and simply say, well done, Mr. President. That’s what we need to see.

By following the link you can see not only the full list, but the dates when they visited. In case you don’t recognize some of the names, I’ll provide the list here along with their professional positions. I rather doubt that any of the names will come as a big surprise.

Billy Tauzin was named president and chief executive officer of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) in January 2005

Karen Ignagni is president and chief executive officer of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)

Richard J. Umbdenstock is the president and chief executive officer of the American Hospital Association (AHA), and a past chair of the AHA

J. James Rohack, MD. is President of the American Medical Association.

William C. Weldon is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson

Jeffrey Kindler is the chairman and chief executive officer at Pfizer, Inc.

Stephen J. Hemsley is President and Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealth Group

Angela F Braly has been CEO of WellPoint (WLP) for 2 years

George Halvorson is chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc, and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals

Jay Gellert is president and chief executive officer of Health Net, Inc.

Thomas Priselac is President and CEO of the Cedars-Sinai Health System

Richard T. Clark is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Merck & Co

Wayne T Smith has been CEO of Community Health Sys (CYH) for 12 years

Richard J. (Rick) Smith is Associate Administrator for Clinician Recruitment and Service at Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

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Father_Time

President Obama is my President, of whom I am well pleased.

casualobserver

peace and love

GeorgeSorwell

Hope and change!

SteveK

Thalia, Aglaea and Euphrosyne.

shannonlee

So is it just health care or is he going to release all of the white house visitors?

And lets be honest here...we already knew the White House wanted the health industry fully involved with the shaping of the plan. These details are a bit irrelevant, nice to see, but irrelevant.

HemmD

Jazz

Now can we get the list of contributions made by health industry PACs to all those in Congress? The debate we spend so much time on is influenced by the millions given to Reps and Senators. I would love the statistical analysis of money to position held in that debate.

I'm tired of elected officials saying the hundreds of thousands they receive has no effect on how they vote for a public option. That correlation would be of interest to all.

Jazz

I'm pretty sure *most* of that information is already available online for free. The problem, of course, is that so much donated money doesn't come in the form of a check written out by "ABC Healthgiant Corp." but goes through a lot of hands and winds up with somebody's name on it. Then you have to backtrack, find out who they are, where they work, where the money came from, etc. It's a tangled mess for sure, but we could definitely use that information.

HemmD

Jazz

"." but goes through a lot of hands and winds up with somebody's name on it. Then you have to backtrack, find out who they are, where they work, where the money came from, etc. It's a tangled mess for sure,"

You mean, it's almost like they don't want people to easily see that correlation? Hard to believe, isn't it? And therein lies the crux of the real reason health care costs continue to skyrocket and health care debates deny the public plan idea.

Thanks

Silhouette

The most useful thing about this release is how it shows who is in bed with whom and, given the title of their business,...why...

At a glance it looks like people who profit from the proliferation of human suffering. Looking closer it appears an unsettlingly-likely conclusion. A short-list for the new recruits of hell if you will..

Don't bother bringing warm clothes guys and gals of the short list. You won't be needing them where you're going..

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