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November 9, 2009

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Letter: If health care plans are familiar, there’s a reason

Monday, Nov. 1, 1999 | 10:44 a.m.

We shall see and hear a lot that a "majority" of commission members endorsed the Breaux-Thomas plan. (We should question whenever and wherever possible about the backgrounds of these members!) Take Debora Steelman, for example, who was paid nearly $3.7 million in lobbying fees in '97 and '98 by drug, HMO and managed care and other health care special interests.

On the commission she voted to privatize Medicare by moving beneficiaries into HMOs. She backed the pharmaceutical industry's opposition to Medicare coverage of outpatient prescription drugs because it opposes the government negotiated price caps necessary to make the benefit affordable. Steelman's vote directly favored the interests of her major lobbying clients!

Do you wonder what Steelman is doing now? She is the chief domestic policy adviser for Republican presidential candidate, George W. Bush!

BARBARA MANLEY

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