1) The core group
Partners HealthCare; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA); Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce; Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation; Massachusetts Business Roundtable; Associated Industries of Massachusetts
2005 lobbying and PAC expenses: $1,483,414
On March 1, Partners chairman Jack Conners convened a meeting of these six groups in the John Hancock tower. His intent, as reflected in the March 12 Globe’s front-page coverage, was to make these players the only ones that matter in the debate. Early signals point to success: the compromise plan they banged out became the tentative agreement announced on March 3 by the House and Senate leadership. But subsequent delays in producing a final bill suggest that the group may not have a lock on power on Beacon Hill.
Conners, former chairman of advertising firm Hill Holliday, is about as connected as anybody in the state, but he’s not the only one with pull in this group. Partners chief operating officer Thomas Glynn has held a variety of important local governmental and industry jobs. Partners CEO James Mongan recently served as chair of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. John Sasso, lobbying for them, was chief of staff to governor Michael Dukakis. BCBSMA executive VP Peter Meade is extremely well connected through former city and state posts and leadership of the pro-business New England Council, and not least as vice-chair of Catholic Charities. William Van Faasen, BCBSMA chair, is Tom Reilly’s top gubernatorial-campaign policy adviser. Paul Guzzi, Chamber president, is a former secretary of state and state representative, and he serves on boards at BCBSMA, Partners HealthCare, Boston Foundation, and others; the Chamber’s board of directors is chock full of influential business leaders. MTF’s president Michael Widmer worked in the Sargent and Dukakis administrations. Alan MacDonald, the Roundtable’s executive director, has been lobbying Beacon Hill for years. He is also a director of the Massachusetts Development Corporation and a trustee of the Massachusetts Hospital Association.
Both BCBSMA and Partners want increases in coverage: any way you slice it, more people covered means more business for BCBSMA, the largest health-insurance provider in the state, and more money for Partners, the largest health-care provider.
The business representatives in the core group — the Chamber, Taxpayers Foundation, Roundtable, and AIM — are internally conflicted. Most businesses provide health-insurance plans to their employees, and are getting screwed by those companies that don’t: those uninsured employees use a lot of health care they can’t pay for, and those costs get picked up by a special uncompensated-care fund, paid for by the insurance and health-care providers and ultimately passed along as higher premiums for companies that do contribute to health-insurance plans.
Both types of companies belong to these associations. One likes the status quo; one doesn’t. The associations’ solution has been to oppose mandatory employee insurance coverage, calling it a “slippery slope” principle that would eventually lead to excessive mandates on all companies.
2) Labor and the left
Committee for Health Care for Massachusetts; SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, local 1199; Health Care for All; Greater Boston Interfaith Organization
2005 lobbying and PAC expenses: $702,051
