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Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., the nation's largest health insurer based on membership, spent $1.4 million in the
first quarter lobbying the federal government on health care reform.
That represents increases of 16 percent from what the insurer spent in the same quarter last year and in the fourth quarter
of 2009. WellPoint, which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, spent about $1.2 million in each of those quarters.
The insurer started 2010 lobbying with a focus on health care reform, as Congress debated and then ultimately passed in March
a measure aimed at covering millions of uninsured Americans.
WellPoint lobbied on individual mandates that will require customers to buy insurance and medical loss ratios, which measure
the percentage of premiums an insurer spends on medical claims. It also lobbied in the January-March quarter on taxes insurers
will face with reform and related Medicare/Medicaid issues.
Reform will eventually deliver millions of new customers to health insurers. But the industry has worried about the impact
of new taxes and coverage mandates, among other issues.
The insurer lobbied Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a report filed with the clerk
of the House of Representatives.
Among those lobbying on WellPoint's behalf was Kim Zimmerman, whose previous jobs included legislative assistant to Sen.
Ben Nelson, D-Neb.; research analyst with the Department of Justice; and legislative correspondent and assistant to Sen. Tom
Harkin, D-Iowa.
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