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July 30, 2009
Texas Hospital Flexing Muscle in Health Fight
By KEVIN SACK and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
McALLEN, Tex. — One of the largest sources of campaign contributions to Senate Democrats during this year’s health care debate is a physician-owned hospital in one of the country’s poorest regions that has sought to soften measures that could choke its rapid growth.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee collected nearly $500,000 at a reception here on March 30, mostly from physicians and others affiliated with Doctors Hospital at Renaissance, financial disclosure records show.
The event was held at the home of a prominent McAllen developer, Alonzo Cantu, a hospital founder, investor and board member who has raised prodigious sums from the Rio Grande Valley for an array of Democrats.
Another event at Mr. Cantu’s home, in September 2007, brought in at least $800,000 for the committee’s House counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to disclosure reports. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was in attendance and cut a ribbon at the hospital’s new women’s center while in town.
The hospital, which is in Edinburg, adjacent to McAllen, is working both sides of the aisle. Its political action committee, Border Health PAC, split $120,000 last year among House and Senate candidates, including Republicans.
Although Congressional negotiations over health care legislation are continuing, Doctors Hospital seems to be getting much of what it wants. Thus far, physician-owned hospitals have been insulated from some of the most onerous potential restrictions in the health care legislation moving through Congress.
Representative Pete Stark, a California Democrat who wants to clamp down on physician-owned hospitals, said their formidable lobbying had helped eliminate his proposal to limit physician ownership to 40 percent at any hospital.
“Particularly led by these guys in Texas, these guys who have been raising tons of money for contributions,” Mr. Stark said in an interview. “I am sure that some of my colleagues have been willing to hear them out.”
The flood of dollars from just a single interest of modest size illustrates just how high the stakes are in this year’s health care negotiations, and how even sideline issues generate intense lobbying.
Speaker Pelosi supported the tougher provisions in previous bills but aides said she was willing ($$$) to accept a compromise to win the new restrictions.
The largest gift to the Senate Democrats — the maximum allowable $30,400 — came from Mr. Cantu, whose construction company built the hospital.
Other major donations included $26,783 from Dr. Lawrence Gelman, the hospital’s chief executive, and gifts of $10,000 to $15,000 from three hospital board members, six doctors and two top executives at a bank where Mr. Cantu is chairman and that has made loans to hospital investors.
Dr. Gelman also attended a fund-raiser related to health care on Monday in Washington for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but because he has already contributed the maximum of $30,400, he did not have to pay the $5,000 ticket price.
Mr. Cantu, who began his working life as a migrant grape-picker, has long been generous to Democratic causes. Disclosure filings show he and his family members have donated more than a quarter of a million dollars to federal campaigns since 1995. He said he raises money from doctors, vendors, employees and friends, but has never reimbursed anyone for a donation, which would violate federal election law.
“Just for the record,” he said, “we’re not that stupid.”
Mr. Cantu helped bundle hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He was the only private citizen invited to accompany Ms. Clinton, now secretary of state, to El Salvador in June for the inauguration of its new president.
He gave $2,300 to Mr. Obama last October, after Ms. Clinton had withdrawn from the race. But like others here, he is not pleased about the president’s depiction of health care in McAllen.
“What’s so upsetting,” he said, “is that to make his case he threw McAllen under the bus.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/us...f=todayspaper#
July 30, 2009
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee collected nearly $500,000 at a reception here on March 30, mostly from physicians and others affiliated with Doctors Hospital at Renaissance, financial disclosure records show.
The event was held at the home of a prominent McAllen developer, Alonzo Cantu, a hospital founder, investor and board member who has raised prodigious sums from the Rio Grande Valley for an array of Democrats.
Another event at Mr. Cantu’s home, in September 2007, brought in at least $800,000 for the committee’s House counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to disclosure reports. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was in attendance and cut a ribbon at the hospital’s new women’s center while in town.
The hospital, which is in Edinburg, adjacent to McAllen, is working both sides of the aisle. Its political action committee, Border Health PAC, split $120,000 last year among House and Senate candidates, including Republicans.
Although Congressional negotiations over health care legislation are continuing, Doctors Hospital seems to be getting much of what it wants. Thus far, physician-owned hospitals have been insulated from some of the most onerous potential restrictions in the health care legislation moving through Congress.
Representative Pete Stark, a California Democrat who wants to clamp down on physician-owned hospitals, said their formidable lobbying had helped eliminate his proposal to limit physician ownership to 40 percent at any hospital.
“Particularly led by these guys in Texas, these guys who have been raising tons of money for contributions,” Mr. Stark said in an interview. “I am sure that some of my colleagues have been willing to hear them out.”
The flood of dollars from just a single interest of modest size illustrates just how high the stakes are in this year’s health care negotiations, and how even sideline issues generate intense lobbying.
Speaker Pelosi supported the tougher provisions in previous bills but aides said she was willing ($$$) to accept a compromise to win the new restrictions.
The largest gift to the Senate Democrats — the maximum allowable $30,400 — came from Mr. Cantu, whose construction company built the hospital.
Other major donations included $26,783 from Dr. Lawrence Gelman, the hospital’s chief executive, and gifts of $10,000 to $15,000 from three hospital board members, six doctors and two top executives at a bank where Mr. Cantu is chairman and that has made loans to hospital investors.
Dr. Gelman also attended a fund-raiser related to health care on Monday in Washington for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but because he has already contributed the maximum of $30,400, he did not have to pay the $5,000 ticket price.
Mr. Cantu, who began his working life as a migrant grape-picker, has long been generous to Democratic causes. Disclosure filings show he and his family members have donated more than a quarter of a million dollars to federal campaigns since 1995. He said he raises money from doctors, vendors, employees and friends, but has never reimbursed anyone for a donation, which would violate federal election law.
“Just for the record,” he said, “we’re not that stupid.”
Mr. Cantu helped bundle hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He was the only private citizen invited to accompany Ms. Clinton, now secretary of state, to El Salvador in June for the inauguration of its new president.
He gave $2,300 to Mr. Obama last October, after Ms. Clinton had withdrawn from the race. But like others here, he is not pleased about the president’s depiction of health care in McAllen.
“What’s so upsetting,” he said, “is that to make his case he threw McAllen under the bus.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/us...f=todayspaper#