Powerful Health Insurance Lobby's New Goal: Win Back Members
- `I’m going to do everything I can,' lobby group leader says
- Insurance trade group may give big companies more say
Together, the exiting insurers cover about one in four Americans.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
America’s Health Insurance Plans is one of Washington’s most powerful lobby groups, spending millions of dollars a year to influence lawmakers, the White House and scores of state officials on the industry’s priorities.
Yet its latest fight isn’t in the halls of Congress, but inside its own headquarters. UnitedHealth Group Inc., the U.S.’s biggest health insurer, quit the group in June over a difference in strategy. Aetna Inc., another giant that will grow even larger with its upcoming purchase of Humana Inc., left at the end of 2015. Together, the exiting insurers cover about one in four Americans.