[Pharm-policy] [Fwd: NYTimes.com Article: Bush Adviser Tied to Insurance Companies]

[Paul Davis]

pdavis@CritPath.Org wrote:

NYT, Thursday, 9.21.2000

> 
> Bush Adviser Tied to Companies
> 
> September 21, 2000
> 
> By JOHN M. BRODER
> 
> WASHINGTON Sept. 20 - A principal author of Gov. George W. Bush's
> Medicare plan, Dr. Gail R. Wilensky, serves on the boards of eight
> health care companies whose fortunes could be affected by the Bush
> proposal.
> 
> Dr. Wilensky, a former administrator of the government office that
> runs Medicare and the current chairwoman of the panel that advises
> Congress on Medicare policy, holds stock and stock options in the
> companies worth $4 million to $5 million today, according to
> company documents and Dr. Wilensky's own estimates.
> 
> She said her relationships with the health care concerns were a
> matter of public record and denied that there was any conflict
> between her service on the corporate boards and her role as a
> health policy adviser to Governor Bush.
> 
> ``I behave in an open and public manner and don't try to hide what
> I am doing,'' Dr. Wilensky said in an interview. ``I might be
> opinionated, I might be wrong, but I'm not carrying anybody else's
> water.''
> 
> She said she has recused herself from decisions of the Medicare
> Payment Advisory Commission, the Congressional policy panel, while
> she serves as a health adviser to Governor Bush to avoid the
> appearance of a conflict.
> 
> And she asserted that there was no way to calculate the direct or
> indirect financial effect of the health plans of Mr. Bush or Vice
> President Al Gore on individual companies. Nor does her service on
> those boards in any way affect the public policy positions she
> advocates, she said.
> 
> But Public Citizen, a research group founded by Ralph Nader,
> charged that Dr. Wilensky represented drug and managed-care
> interests directly affected by Mr. Bush's plan and called her
> financial relationship to numerous health care concerns ``wholly
> inappropriate.''
> 
> Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch, said
> that Dr. Wilensky advocated a health care proposal that favored
> providers over consumers. And he contended that she stood to profit
> personally if the Bush plan were enacted.
> 
> ``Here is a central health care adviser to Bush who is a major
> representative of pharmaceutical and insurance interests, which is
> why the Bush prescription drug program is so favored by the
> industry and so opposed by consumers,'' Mr. Clemente said. ``It is
> just wholly inappropriate and a direct conflict of interest.''
> 
> Mr. Bush's health care proposal leaves much medical decision-making
> to private industry, including insurers and health maintenance
> organizations. The government would still pay most costs and would
> supervise insurers, approving or disapproving all plans.
> 
> Dr. Wilensky wrote much of the plan and explained it to reporters
> when it was released. The proposal is consistent with Dr.
> Wilensky's longstanding views on the most efficient means of
> delivering medical services to consumers.
> 
> Public Citizen is planning to release a report this week detailing
> Dr. Wilensky's holdings in health care companies and accusing her
> of designing a health plan that could enrich her. The report, which
> the group made available to The New York Times, contends that her
> financial stake in the medical industry is more troubling than the
> cobiHalliburton Companycoei stock options of Dick Cheney, Mr.
> Bush's running mate. Mr. Cheney might shape energy policy some time
> in the future in a Bush administration, the report states, while
> Dr. Wilensky is already drafting proposals for the campaign.
> 
> Mr. Cheney said this month that if elected he would forfeit stock
> options worth about $3.5 million in Halliburton, the energy
> services company that he left to run for office.
> 
> The Bush campaign reacted angrily to Public Citizen's charges and
> defended Dr. Wilensky.
> 
> ``This is a ridiculous assertion by a left-leaning group which
> supports more government control over health care,'' said Dan
> Bartlett, a spokesman for Mr. Bush.
> 
> ``Democrats and Republicans in Congress believe she has high
> integrity and trust her to advise them on health care policy and we
> believe she is an added asset to our campaign,'' Mr. Bartlett said.
> ``The policy that Governor Bush implements or promotes will be
> based on what's best for America and will be based on consultation
> from a wide range of advisers from a wide range of backgrounds.''
> 
> Vice President Gore's health policy advisers are chiefly full-time
> Democratic campaign aides or government officials. The group
> includes Elaine Kamarck, Mr. Gore's top domestic policy adviser;
> Sarah Bianchi, a Gore campaign health policy specialist; Donna E.
> Shalala, the secretary of Health and Human Services; Chris
> Jennings, the White House's senior health affairs adviser; and Dr.
> David A. Kessler, the dean of the Yale University Medical School.
> 
> None appear to hold any outside employment or corporate
> directorships, according to the Gore campaign and public records.
> 
> Dr. Wilensky, 57, who holds a doctorate in economics, is the John
> M. Olin Senior Fellow at Project HOPE, an international health
> foundation, her only full-time position. She is taking leave and
> vacation time from Project HOPE to advise the Bush campaign, she
> said.
> 
> She served in the White House under President Bush in 1992 as
> deputy assistant for policy development, working on health care and
> welfare issues. Dr. Wilensky's largest single holding is in the
> cobiUnited HealthCare Corporation,cobi one of the nation's leading
> managed-care companies.
> 
> Dr. Wilensky has a total of 70,750 shares and stock options in
> United, which closed at $92.31 a share today. She exercised her
> option to acquire 16,000 of the shares at $49.50 a share in May,
> yielding a paper profit of nearly $700,000.
> 
> The face value of all securities of companies she serves as a
> director is more than $12 million, corporate filings show. But Dr.
> Wilensky said that because many of her holdings were in stock
> options granted her as compensation for her board service - and
> many had not yet vested - their actual value was less than $5
> million today.
> 
> Company disclosure documents generally do not reveal the price at
> which the options were granted so it is impossible to calculate
> precisely the value of Dr. Wilensky's holdings. She said she has
> disclosed all of her directorships and outside interests under
> Congressional ethics rules. However, she added, ``I don't feel I
> have an obligation to disclose asset accumulation.''
> 
> As a result of her board service, Dr. Wilensky holds thousands of
> shares and options in cobiGentiva Health Services, Syncor, Advanced
> Tissue Sciences, Shared Medical Systems, St. Jude Medical Care,
> Quest Diagnostics and Manor Care.coei The companies provide a
> variety of medical services from human tissue replacements to
> nursing care to data management.
> 
> Spokesmen for several of the companies said that they took no
> position on the Bush or the Gore health care proposals.
> 
> Dr. Wilensky said that the drug industry has the most to gain or
> lose from the presidential candidates' competing health plans.
> 
> The industry's trade association, the Pharmaceutical Research and
> Manufacturers Association, has been critical of the Gore plan
> because, the group contends, it will lead to government price
> controls. The industry has been more sympathetic to the Bush
> proposal because it leaves drug purchasing for Medicare largely in
> the private sector.
> 
> Dr. Wilensky said that she is not a director of any drug company or
> member of the industry's trade association.
> 
> 
>    
> 
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