Insurance firms schmooze GOP while records show leftward drift
Health insurance companies that long favored Republican candidates have been shifting their PAC contributions toward Democrats in recent election cycles even as thay intensify lobbying of GOP lawmakers over Obamacare policy.OpenSecrets data show firms like Humana and Elevance moved from giving roughly twice as much to Republicans between 2000-2012 to much more evenly split-or even Democrat-leaning-gifts by 2018-2024; UnitedHealth and Centene have been more mixed or steady. Simultaneously occurring,insurers are spending heavily on lobbyists and hiring former Republican staff and operatives to persuade centrist GOP members to support extending enhanced ACA premium tax credits. That extension is politically fraught-Speaker Mike Johnson opposed a floor vote, though a handful of Republicans joined Democrats to force one-and insurers have also made strategic donations (for example, Elevance to Johnson’s joint fundraising committee). Critics say the subsidies mainly boost insurer profits at taxpayer expense; the industry counters that ending them would raise costs and harm rural areas. Major firms did not respond to requests for comment.
Health insurers drift leftward in campaign donations even as they seek to sway GOP
Insurance lobbyists are working hard on Capitol Hill in an attempt to sway centrist Republicans into their camp as party leadership expresses strong skepticism toward extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies. As these lobbyists take meetings with GOP staffers and members, however, they likely aren’t mentioning the fact that the firms paying them millions to advance their interests have shifted their campaign contributions toward the Democratic Party.
Humana, the fourth-largest health insurance firm in the nation, for instance, historically favored Republicans through its PAC contributions between 2000 and 2012 by nearly two-to-one margins, according to campaign finance data compiled by OpenSecrets. During 2012, a particularly favorable year for the GOP, for instance, Humana’s PAC gave $413,000 to Republicans and just under $210,000 to Democrats.
In 2014, however, the gap between Humana’s financial support for Republicans and Democrats slipped, a trend that continued into 2016 and 2018, then culminated in 2020 with a near reversal when the firm’s PAC opted to give more than $300,000 to Democrats and just over $200,000 to Republicans. Humana’s giving in 2020 and 2024 was roughly evenly split between parties, a far cry from its past support for the GOP.
Elevance Health, in a similar vein, strongly supported Republicans between 2000 and 2012, often giving the GOP more than twice what it gave Democrats during a given cycle, campaign finance records show. The most extreme instance of this came in 2010, when Elevance’s PAC gave Republicans $529,000 and Democrats just under $160,000. As with Humana, Elevance’s PAC contributions have become more evenly distributed in recent years, even favoring Democrats between 2018 and 2022.
Major insurance companies give strategically. Elevance, for instance, has given $25,000 to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) joint fundraising committee.
Johnson has proven to be a considerable obstacle to the interests of insurance companies, possibly explaining their desire to be in his good graces.
Before lawmakers returned home for the holidays, the speaker made it clear that he opposed a floor vote on the extension of the added Obamacare subsidies. Four Republicans, however, broke ranks with their party to join Democrats in forcing a vote. These defections indicate that insurance lobbyists could sway enough GOP representatives to save the COVID-19 era enhanced subsidies for the Obamacare exchanges.
The duo of insurance companies, like most firms with business before Congress, hires individuals with connections to Republican lawmakers so that they can frame their concerns in language that conservative representatives find compelling. Lobbying disclosures indicate major insurance firms are paying lobbyists hundreds of thousands of dollars every month to shape policy in this way.
Not all insurance companies have had the same giving trajectory as Elevance and Humana.
UnitedHealth Group’s PAC favored the Democratic Party between 2008 and 2010, but since then, it has consistently given Republicans slightly more money than their Democratic rivals each electoral cycle. Centene Corporation, meanwhile, has always been relatively even-handed in its PAC contributions.
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The stakes of the ongoing healthcare debates are high for insurance companies.
Conservative critics of the Obamacare subsidies claim that they serve to pad the profits of insurance companies at the expense of taxpayers. Allies of the insurance industry, meanwhile, maintain that failing to extend the expanded tax credits for coverage will lead to increased healthcare costs, particularly in rural America.
Humana, UnitedHealth, Elevance, and Centene Corporation did not respond to requests for comment.
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