Paul Ryan's Connections to Insurance Companies - OpenSecrets Blog

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is back with a new budget proposal that's not so different from his previous ones. Like its predecessors, it repeals the Affordable Care Act and significantly cuts back Medicare, potentially creating more customers for health insurance companies, some of Ryan's top campaign supporters.

So how exactly does Ryan -- GOP nominee Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick in 2012 -- plan to balance the nation's books? Well, it doesn't entirely repeal the Affordable Care Act: It keeps the $700 billion in Medicare and other cuts the law made, which Ryan has also included in previous versions of his budget (though he wasn't so enthusiastic about? those Medicare trims -- which are actually reductions in the program's future growth -- during the presidential campaign).

Ryan would repeal much of the rest of the health care law, cutting $1.8 trillion in new spending, most of which subsidizes private health insurance coverage. Instead, he's reintroducing his controversial proposal to allow those currently under 55 to opt out of Medicare for subsidized private insurance coverage once they become eligible for the program.

In a letter to Ryan analyzing an earlier iteration of his budget plan, the Roadmap for America?s Future Act of 2010, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office wrote that individuals would likely pay higher premiums with private coverage than under Medicare, because they have less negotiating leverage than the federal program; also, administrative costs are higher for individual plans.

Over the course of Ryan's career in Congress, insurance has been the top industry (after retired people) contributing to his campaigns, with $895,928 in contributions since he first campaigned for his House seat, according to OpenSecrets.org data.The Health Professionals and Pharmaceutical industries follow close behind as his fourth and seventh most supportive industries, contributing $626,249 and $350,282, respectively, since 2000.

Major drugmaker Abbott Laboratories and health insurer Blue Cross/Blue Shield are Ryan's eighth and ninth largest contributors, respectively, during his years in federal politics; they've contributed $62,700 (Abbott) and $60,650 (Blue Cross) to his efforts.

Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/03/paul-ryans-connections-to-insurance.html

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