Insurance Industry Toasts Gang of Six with Millions

The insurance industry is a big sponsor of the six Senators comprising the Gang of Six. The bipartisan group works to craft a health care reform bill in the Senate Finance Committee. Their lifetime donations from the insurance industry are roughly (insurance industry rank is in parenthesis):

Max Baucus (D-MT)--$1.2 million (#3)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)--$830,000 (#2)
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)--$160,000 (#11)

Total donations to "Gang of Six" Democrats--$2.2 million

Chuck Grassley (R-IA)--$930,000 (#1)
Mike Enzi (R-WY)--$240,000 (#5)
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)--$430,000 (#2)

Total donations to "Gangrene of Six" Republicans--$1.5 million

That's a $3.7 million group of Senators, courtesy of America's insurance industry. Who knew the Blues beat the Reds? How high might it go if the rest of the committee was added?

Democratic average of other 10 members--$.535,000

Republican average of other 7 members--$560,000

Insurance support for all twenty members of the SFC totals $13 million, a sweet $650,000 average lifetime donation. I wouldn't be surprised if the fix is in, just as BusinessWeek reported.

(All data is from Open Secrets.)