July 17, 2025
Health insurance industry spends big on lobbying while promising to reform
‘With Health Care Sharing Ministries, members know where their money is going: helping hard-pressed families and individuals meet their medical expenses,’ said AHCSM Executive Director Katy Talento
WASHINGTON — The health insurance industry has been on a nearly half-billion-dollar spending spree to convince Congress that it needs no oversight and can govern itself.
“Fat chance of that, based on their track record,” said Katy Talento, executive director of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries (AHCSM). “They may have thought they were out of the crosshairs after the Trump administration announced their voluntary commitment to alleviate the burden of prior authorization demands on patients and health care providers. At the same time, they’re persecuting doctors who complain on social media about their still quite active prior authorization insanity.
“According to the watchdog group HEALTH CARE Uncovered, AHIP, the huge PR and lobbying firm for most health insurers, has spent almost $65 million lobbying Congress and the Biden and Trump administrations since 2020. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has spent more than twice as much. Throw in a couple more insurance lobbying groups, and you come up with nearly $500 million. No wonder it’s hard to get Congress to take reforms seriously.
“With Health Care Sharing Ministries, members know where their money is going: helping hard-pressed families and individuals meet their medical expenses. HCSM members are a part of a community that prioritizes one another’s health, not company profits.”
“One way they make that kind of dough, for their shareholders and top executives, is by using prior authorization to avoid paying for patients’ medically necessary care,” said HEALTH CARE Uncovered investigator Wendell Potter, who utilized OpenSecrets.org.
“Many people die as a result, while investors get richer. But just the lobbying totals are mind-blowing. When you factor in the money spent by the big seven insurers and the other PR and lobbying groups that insurers funnel money to, the total grows to … $476.5 million.
“That’s the amount of money health insurance corporations and four of their PR and lobbying groups – AHIP, BCBSA (which includes contributions from Elevance/Anthem as well as numerous other BCBS companies), the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association and the Better Medicare Alliance – have collectively spent on lobbying Congress and federal regulators between January 1, 2020, and March 31, 2025.”
In addition, three pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) owned by Cigna, CVS/Aetna and UnitedHealth, “control 80% of the pharmacy benefit market and determine which drugs we’ll have access to and how much we have to pay out of pocket even with insurance,” Potter said.
“We’ve been down this road before,” Talento said. “The health insurance industry’s sheer size and secrets are laid bare, so they offer empty promises about cleaning up their act. Thank God that Christians have an alternative to this stacked system — Health Care Sharing Ministries.”
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries is a 501(c)(6) trade organization representing the common interests of Health Care Sharing Ministries, which are facilitating the sharing of health care needs (financial, emotional and spiritual) by individuals and families, and their participants. The Alliance engages with federal and state regulators, members of the media, and the Christian community to provide accurate and timely information on health care sharing.
To learn more about the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, visit www.ahcsm.org or follow the ministry on Facebook or Twitter.
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To interview a representative from The Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, contact Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, Beth Bogucki, 610.584.1096 ext. 105, Dawn Foglein, ext. 100, or Richard Jefferson, rjefferson@hamiltonstrategies.com.
