Top Health Care Companies Spent More than Half Million on Congressional Trips
Sam Stein, Huffington Post
June 26, 2009
Over the past eight years, some of the largest and most politically active pharmaceutical and health care companies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on private trips for members of Congress and their staffs...
...The pharmaceutical and health products industry as a whole has, in 2009 alone, already spent more than $66.5 million lobbying Congress. PhRMA, in particular, has come out against plans for a public option for insurance coverage. And as these groups with a vested interest in the outcome of the debate gear up for a summer of legislative combat, groups who follow money in politics worry that sponsorship of congressional travel may give some a leg up on the competition.