Health Care Lobbyists Lead Special Interest Spending in New York

Lobbyists working for the health care sector in New York state spent more money last year to "influence state legislation" than representatives of any other industry in the state, according to a new report from the New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying. The New York Times reports that lobbyists and their clients spent a total of $66.3 million last year, down $5.6 million from 1999, when a "coalition of health care workers and hospitals poured $10 million into an advertising campaign to win passage of an insurance program for the poor." Lobbying spending also "appears to be rising" because of the use of polls, mass mailings and Internet sites, the Times reports. The following are some of the biggest health care spenders in 2000:

• Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield spent $1,190,175 on lobbying -- the most of any group or company in the state -- in an unsuccessful effort to persuade the state Legislature to switch the insurer's not-for-profit status to for-profit. Roughly $900,000 of that sum went toward newspaper and radio ads.
• The Medical Society of New York, "the main lobbying group for New York doctors," was second in spending at $1,104,833. It was unsuccessful in its bids to defeat a law to publicize a doctor's history, including malpractice suits, and to pass a measure that would have allowed the society to negotiate with MCOs.
• The Greater New York Hospital Association and the Healthcare Association of New York State spent a combined $1.5 million, some of which went toward a failed effort to enact an insurance prompt payment law.
• 1199/SEIU, the state's "largest health care union," spent $562,699, "mostly on an effort to increase spending on nursing home staffs."