The Center for Public Integrity

The health insurance industry presented itself as a key ally of President Barack Obama’s health care law while at the same time making hefty contributions to members of Congress who are trying to get rid of it, according to contribution records.

Between January of 2007 and August of 2012, the political action committees of the 11 largest health insurance companies and their primary trade group gave $10.2 million to federal politicians with nearly two-thirds of the total going to Republicans who oppose the law or support its repeal, according to the Center for Public Integrity’s analysis of Federal Election Commission filings.

The 11 top companies, according to the Fortune 500 list, controlled 35 percent of the industry in 2011, according to data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The top industry trade group is America’s Health Insurance Plans.

Much of the money rolled in as health insurance industry leaders lauded the Democrats’ reform efforts.

“We are ready to be accountable to these [new] rules,” Karen Ignagni, AHIP’s president and CEO told the Senate Finance Committee in May 2009, almost a year before Obama’s landmark legislation was signed into law. And a month after Obama’s Affordable Care Act became law in March 2010, Ignagni said her organization was “strongly committed” to [its] “successful implementation.”

Likewise, Ron Williams, then chairman and CEO of Aetna, the country’s fifth-largest health insurance company, also spoke favorably about the bill — at first.

“I believe that President Obama and this Congress have charted a course of change,” Williams said in a June 2009 statement. “I want to make clear that we too are committed to expanding access, controlling costs and improving the quality and value of care people receive.”

Type of organization: Super PAC

Supports candidate: Republican

Founded: October 21, 2011

Website: congressionalleadershipfund.org

Social media: YouTube channel, Twitter profile

Principals:

Type of organization: 501(c)(4)

Employer Identification Number: 52-1733698

Supports: Pro-environment candidates, mostly Democrats

Founded: 1969

Website: LCV.org

Social media: YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter profile

Finances:

For the group's activities during calendar year 2010:

• Total revenue: $19.5 million
• Total expenses: $19 million
• Net assets: $6.4 million

IRS Form 990 filing: 2010

Principals:

Type of organization: Super PAC

Supports: Republican candidates

Founded: Oct. 27, 2011

Website: ygaction.com

Social Media: YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter profile

Principals:

• John Murray (president, founder and treasurer): President and founder of YG Action Network, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit and YG Policy Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit; previously served as d

  ">eputy chief of staff to Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.
• Brad Dayspring (adviser): Served as aide in the second President George W. Bush administration; former deputy chief of staff to Cantor.

Profile:

YG Action Fund — the super PAC of the conservative “Young Guns” movement — spent more than $4.7 million on independent expenditures boosting Republicans in congressional races during the 2012 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, are the group’s primary financial backers. The Adelsons accounted for $5 million of the $5.9 million that the group raised.

The group also received $250,000 in donations from billionaire New York hedge fund manager Bruce Kovner and his wife, Suzanne.

Liberal super PAC End the Gridlock spent more than $534,000 opposing Republican state Sen. Deb Fischer, who is favored to win the U.S. Senate seat in Nebraska.

Fischer faces former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson in the Republican-leaning state.

End the Gridlock was established in April in Washington, D.C., and has spent all its funds on ads opposing Fischer.  The group's website says it plans to focus on “high impact races” but only names Nebraska.

Its most recent quarterly filing shows the super PAC took in $229,000 through the end of June. The top donor, Hollywood producer Sidney Kimmel, gave $100,000. Kimmel earned his fortune as founder of the Jones Apparel Group, known for such brands as Jones New York and 9 West. Majority PAC, a super PAC whose goal is helping Democrats maintain control of the U.S. Senate, show transfers to End the Gridlock totaling more than $257,000.

The only Nebraska-based donor currently on record is Richard Holland, who helped build one of Omaha’s largest ad agencies. As of the end of June, he contributed $25,000.

Conservative super PAC American Crossroads released “World,” a particularly misleading attack on President Barack Obama’s actions on the day U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was killed in Libya.

The video opens with the sound of sirens and crackling fires as shots of protests and burning buildings are shown. A newscaster reads a statement from the White House confirming that the Obama administration considers the killing of the ambassador to Libya and three other Americans to be a terrorist attack.

On that day, the narrator says, Obama “campaigned in Las Vegas.” It also accuses the president of skipping meetings with world leaders at the United Nations so he could appear on a television show.

Obama was not in Las Vegas campaigning on Sept. 11, the day of the attack. Both he and Romney refrained from campaigning that day out of respect for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Obama went to Las Vegas the next day, the official White House schedule shows, and spoke of the attack.

And the president, as the ad seems to suggest, did not “snub key allies” the day of the attack in Libya to be on “The View.” His television appearance was two weeks after the attack.

The ad claims Obama was busy with “The View” while Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was calling for a new world order at the UN. Ahmadinejad did speak at the UN that day, and the American delegation was absent — because it was boycotting Ahmadinejad’s speech in protest of his strident anti-Israel position.

The political action committee of the American Hospital Association reported spending $968,000 on ads supporting Republican incumbent representatives in Louisiana, Washington, New York and Pennsylvania, all of whom sit on committees that oversee health care issues.

The ads support Reps. Charles Boustany Jr. in Louisiana’s 3rd District, Richard Hanna in New York’s 22nd  District, Tom Reed in New York’s 23rd District, Cathy McMorris Rodgers in Washington’s 5th District and  Jim Gerlach in Pennsylvania’s 6th District.

The American Hospital Association is a trade group representing hospitals and health care networks. It opposes any and all cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, supports lower costs for graduate medical education, wants to simplify regulatory requirements and favors lowering malpractice premiums for doctors.

The spending comes from the association’s regulated political action committee, which, unlike super PACs, can accept a maximum of $5,000 in contributions, but can make direct donations to candidates.

This is the PAC’s first reported independent expenditure in the election. However, it has contributed more than$761,000 to U.S. House and Senate candidates directly, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Its independent spending backs Republicans but its direct candidate contributions slightly favor Democrats.

All six candidates supported by the PAC’s outside spending have voted to repeal President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

• $3 million to Priorities USA Action (pro-Barack Obama)
• $1.05 million to House Majority PAC (pro-Democratic), all of which came from his wife Amber Mostyn
• $500,000 to Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $425,000 to Texans for America’s Future (pro-Democratic), all of which came via Mostyn's firm's corporate treasury
• $200,000 to Planned Parenthood (pro-Democratic), all of which came from Amber Mostyn

• $151,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (since 2008)
• $400,000 to the Democratic Governors Association to boost former Houston Mayor Bill White’s unsuccessful gubernatorial run against Gov. Rick Perry (2010)

• $1.36 million to Democrats in state House and Senate districts (2010)
• $1 million to House Democratic Caucus of Texas (since 2009)

Ranking: 11

• $5 million to Priorities USA Action (pro-Barack Obama)
• $3 million to Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $1.5 million to House Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $75,000 to Planned Parenthood Votes (pro-Democratic)