Lawmakers Who Called Lewin Group's Data 'Nonpartisan' Collect Cash From Parent Company UnitedHealth from Capital Eye

by Aaron Kiersh

For years, congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have regarded the Lewin Group, a Virginia-based research firm, as an unbiased, nonpartisan auditor of health care legislation. The company's website quotes Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bob Bennett (R-Utah) calling the Lewin Group the "gold standard" for health care analysis.

Yet as the Washington Post reported Wednesday, few who have cited recent Lewin data, which suggests nearly 100 million Americans may quit their private insurance plans if offered a government-run alternative, mention that the company belongs to a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary.

UnitedHealth is represented in Washington by America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group that consists of the nation's largest insurance providers and has emerged as one of the most outspoken opponents of President Barack Obama's plans to overhaul health care.

The Lewin Group itself does not have any history of lobbying the federal government, according to Center for Responsive Politics records. But UnitedHealth spent $1.6 million on lobbyists during the first quarter of 2009 after shelling out $4.7 million last year. AHIP has already spent $2 million on lobbyists this year, after lavishing $7.5 million on K Street in 2008.

Campaign contributions are also part of the insurers' government relations arsenal.

UnitedHealth's political action committee and employees have given current lawmakers $1.6 million since 2007. And although many Republican lawmakers have been singing Lewin Group's nonpartisan praises, 61 percent of its parent company's contributions have gone to Democrats since the beginning of the 2008 election cycle.

Based on contributions given since the start of 2007, UnitedHealth's top recipient (not including presidential candidates) is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has collected $35,000. Bennett has brought in $8,000 from the company since the start of the 2008 election cycle, at which time UnitedHealth's subsidiary Igenix acquired Lewin.

GOP lawmakers, who like the insurers have argued that a public option will harm private sector providers, tend to cite Lewin Group statistics more than their Democratic colleagues. The Post article noted Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) as having mentioned Lewin data.

Cantor (R-Va.) has brought in $12,500 from UnitedHealth since 2007 and Hatch has raised $7,000. Cantor ranks No. 13 among all lawmakers who have collected UnitedHealth cash since 2007.

AHIP's chief executive, Karen Ignagni, also tends to favor Republicans with her campaign contributions, Capital Eye reported earlier this month. About 55 percent of her lifetime donations have gone to Republicans.

Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana and a potential Republican presidential candidate, as well as Karl Rove, a strategist in the Bush White House, have both penned recent Wall Street Journal columns using Lewin figures to criticize a public health care plan. (Read Jindal here and Rove here.)

The Journal harnessed Lewin statistics in a July 20 editorial that calls Obama's preferred health care plan "one of the worst pieces of legislation ever introduced in Congress."

Not all Lewin findings bolster the Obama plan's critics, however.

Unlike AHIP, Lewin has declined to take a public stance on the legislation currently up for debate in both chambers. The firm's vice president, John Sheils, told the Post that if a public option is implemented, "People would indeed lose [the private plans] they have, but they might very well be better off."