http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/06/08/more-emails-emerge-from-2009-health-law-push/

June 8, 2012

More Emails Emerge From 2009 Health Push

By Alicia Mundy

Newly released emails [1] give an inside look at how the White House got the pharmaceutical industry to pay for millions of dollars in ads in 2009 promoting the president's controversial health-care overhaul bill.

The emails also show that the money for the ad campaign from drug-industry companies, health-care lobbies and unions went through nonprofit groups that didn't have to disclose their donors. One such organization, Healthy Economy Now, was created in the spring of 2009 in conjunction with White House officials and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee according to the emails.

"As a 501(c)(4), Healthy Economy Now can accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labor organizations and association.... we are not required to publicly disclose donation amounts," wrote Nick Baldick, a longtime Democratic strategist who worked with the nonprofit group. Mr. Baldick didn't return a call requesting comment.

His letter was written after an April 15, 2009 meeting on health-care overhaul strategy and promotion, convened by then-White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, and held at the DSCC, according to emails. A lobbyist for the health insurance industry was also looped in for planning.

Mr. Messina is now Mr. Obama's re-election campaign manager. He didn't respond to a request for comment.

The White House push for the nationwide ad campaign, supported heavily by the drug industry and it lobbying group the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, was reported in 2009. The bill passed in 2010.

The emails, released by Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, reveal financial details about the arrangements with PhRMA and others to promote the planned legislation, and the development of administration's t message, tying the high costs of health care to the future of the U.S. economy.

The administration has downplayed the information in the emails, a tranch of which were released last week. [2]

"Republicans, who previously admitted this is not serious and merely a partisan effort to distract the President's re-election campaign, are now attempting to recycle an old story that was well covered during the original debate three years ago," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz in a statement.

The emails show that drug makers hesitated to agree to pony up a lot of money for the ads without proof that their desires and concerns were reflected in the deal with the administration. One email from a Democratic consultant to PhRMA sent to other PhRMA folks on June 3, 2009, said that the start of the ads, and the "spend" on airtime "depends on how things develop."

PhRMA spent $10.2 million on Healthy Economy Now's ad campaign, according to the House committee's statement Friday on the emails. When Healthy Economy Now went dormant during the summer of 2009, it was replaced by another non-profit, Americans for Stable Quality Care, to which PhRMA gave $59.4 million, according to the committee.

[1] http://energycommerce.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=9588

[2] http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/05/31/emails-describe-deal-making-on-obama-health-bill/