Hillary Clinton Profits from Big Pharma, Big Insurance
Chris Jacobs of the Conservative Review has an interesting review of Hillary Clinton’s business income from health insurers and pharmaceutical manufacturers:
At the end of this campaign’s first debate for Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton claimed that she counted the pharmaceutical and insurance industries as her enemies. Since that time, various reports have focused on the way in which her campaigns, as well as the Clinton Foundation, have profited from contributions by drug and insurance companies. However, few have reported how Bill and Hillary Clinton personally profited from insurance and drug company largesse.
To call it mere profit would be an understatement. As the below spreadsheet shows, financial disclosure records filed by the Clintons demonstrate that since Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, he and his wife have received more than $9.3 million in honoraria for speeches before groups associated with health care, and a whopping $3.4 million for speeches paid for by groups in the drug, device, and insurance industries (bolded in the spreadsheet).
(Readers can download the spreadsheet at Mr. Jacob’s article.)
My own conclusion is that the health insurers will get what they paid for, if Mrs. Clinton is elected President, whereas the drug-makers will be reminded of the old adage that “you cannot buy politicians; but only rent them.”
Hillary Clinton’s entire health policy consists of pledging to preserve and protect the Affordable Care Act while beating up on drug-makers for the prices they charge. Polling indicates many people accept the exaggerated accusation that high drug prices, not Obamacare, are the largest factor driving premium hikes.
Recall that the drug-makers face exactly the same Obamacare excise tax as the device-makers. However, the device-markers have advocated repeal of their excise tax without taking a breath for five years now. The drug-makers agreed to suck it up and be quiet in exchange for letting the so-called “non-interference clause” (which prohibits the federal government from dictating prices in the Medicare Part D prescription benefit) stand in the Affordable Care Act. Hillary Clinton would renege on that.
The least popular part of Obamacare is the individual mandate to buy health insurance, a mandate four Supreme Court judges found violates the Constitution. It is an important piece of the partial repeal bill the Republicans in Congress plan to pass through reconciliation later this year. If Mrs. Clinton wanted to improve in the polls, she would promise to repeal the individual mandate in a bipartisan bill she would commit to sign as President. However, she is likely unable to do that because she was for the individual mandate before Barack Obama was.
The rewards to investing in politicians are fickle. So far, it looks like health insurers which invested in the Clinton family business made a good investment. Drug-makers, on the other hand, bought a lemon.
“you cannot buy politicians; but only rent them.”
Just like beer! There’s an old saying that an honest politician is one who once you’ve bought them stays bought.
The Clintons are classic sociopaths, incapable of feeling guilt, remorse, empathy or shame. Bill is an extremely charming sociopath and pulls it off successfully. Hillary, not so much.
I remember the scandal when news broke that a then 31-year old Hillary traded cattle futures — turning $1,000 in 1978 into $94,540 within a year. Despite making a boatload of money for a young lawyer back in 1980, she quit because she didn’t have the stomach for it. It is known she had help from Tyson’s lawyer (a family friend). Many believe the trades were somehow rigged in her favor, where winning were hers, but losses were her benefactor’s. Of course, there was also the Whitewater development investment where Clinton’s invested $500 with their friend, McDougal, who took out a $200,000 loan for the partnership, which he personally guaranteed. Why would you guarantee a $200,000 loan and split profits in return for a $500 investment? You might if you were trying to ensure the friendship of a rising political star who might become governor.
Hillary has always been in bed with the insurance companies. In Overdose of Socialism Dr Faria writes:
“When Hillary Clinton and Ira Magaziner assembled a health care brain trust to “reform” the existing system, they staffed it with many architects of the current system of corporate socialized medicine. As the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) discovered in a landmark lawsuit filed against the Clinton Administration (AAPS v. Clinton), the secretive health care task force was staffed with representatives from corporate managed care entities such as the Henry Kaiser Permanente and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations.
Typifying the relentless mendacity that has characterized Bill Clinton’s Administration, Hillary and Magazines insisted that since the task force was composed of federal government employees, it did not have to make its deliberations open to the public under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. However, documents wrested from the Administration through the AAPS lawsuit disclosed that at least half of the task force’s members were representatives of government-favored corporate entities.”
Hillary is not a Socialist. Hillary is a Fascist with her government-favored corporate entities.