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Health firms boost Patrick

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February 06, 2012|By Noah Bierman

Governor Deval Patrick’s federal political action committee collected at least $52,250 from health care interests from July through December, just as Beacon Hill was gearing up for a major fight over how to overhaul payments in the multibillion-dollar industry.

The total was collected from just 18 donors and committees and makes up a significant portion of the PAC’s overall fund-raising tally for the latest sixth-month reporting period, which totaled $301,561.

Many of the individuals and companies who contributed have a lot at stake in the current debate, including executives affiliated with Partners Healthcare, the state’s largest hospital network, and Shields Health Care. The governor is hoping to change the way Massachusetts patients and insurers pay for medical care, from the current fee-for-service plan to a global-payment system, in which providers would have a fixed budget to care for each patient.

Health care is the state’s largest industry, and any shift in its economic underpinnings would have broad impacts.

The donors gave an average of $2,750 each, well above the $500 limit for state political campaigns. The federal PAC is allowed to accept donations of up to $5,000.

Patrick uses the committee, called Together PAC, to pay for travel and other expenses associated with his work as a national spokesman for President Obama’s reelection campaign and to encourage Democratic activism in other states. In his second term, the governor has been trying to raise his profile, which could enhance his career prospects in either politics or the private sector when he leaves office.

Patrick has a policy against accepting donations from casino interests, but he has raised no such bar to contributions from the health care industry, where there is equal money to be gained or lost depending on regulations and laws enacted by the state.

The ban on casino money is “out of an abundance of caution and in light of significant public sensitivities relative to the future of gaming in the Commonwealth,’’ according to the executive director of his PAC, Alex Goldstein.

Goldstein said “contributions have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on administration policies.’’

He pointed to Patrick’s largely successful efforts, begun in 2010, to cap health premium increases, which angered many insurance companies, and to the cost-containment legislation he proposed last year, which is still awaiting action in the Legislature.

“The governor has been a national leader in his efforts to protect small businesses and working families from rising health care costs,’’ Goldstein said in a statement.

But several of the health care companies who donated to Patrick are closely watching the debate on Beacon Hill.