Reference no: EM133093107

Interest groups, often called lobbyists, are demanders of healthcare policy. In Democratic societies, lobbyists serve a purpose in that through their collective efforts they have a better chance of influencing healthcare policy than if they tried to individually make a difference.

Lobbying is protected by the Constitution; the First Amendment, commonly known as "Freedom of Speech" also protects the people's right to peacefully assemble and petition the government. The idea of lobbyists in the United States can be traced back to the earliest years of the country's existence. In the 1780's, James Madison spoke of "factions" and described them as any number of citizens united by a common cause, interest, or passion. There are differing scholarly viewpoints pertaining to the efficacy of lobbyists; some believe they serve good purpose, and others believe the opposite. (Longest, 2016).

The term "lobby" as a verb originated in the mid-1800's, which referred to group activities aimed at influencing public officials in the lobbies of legislative buildings. (Miriam-Webster, 2021). Lobbyists can be influential in any stage of policymaking. Lobbyist groups can be utilized to gain the attention of a law-maker and identify problems that must be addressed by legislation. Lobbyists can also seek to influence a lawmakers propensity to vote on a piece of legislation that is currently in its formulation stage. Even from the implementation phase onwards, lobbyists can attempt to persuade lawmakers to prolong the positive affects of a piece of legislation as they pertain that interest group. Conversely, lobbyists can also utilize their plural power to illustrate to a lawmaker the negative ramifications of a policy being implemented, in an attempt to reformulate said policy and minimize the negative affects. (Longest, 2016).

Healthcare lobbyists represent an enormous expenditure. Lobbyists in 2013 spent almost $360M in their efforts to influence healthcare policy, a magnitude of spend which is higher than any other sector in the United States. (Longest, 2016).

Just prior to the pandemic in 2019 the largest healthcare lobbying spenders were Biotechnology Innovation Organization, the American Medical Association, and the American Hospital Association. (Cohrs, 2019).

Not surprisingly, healthcare lobbying expenses grew astronomically higher in during the Pandemic. In the first quarter alone for 2020, nearly $249M was spent on healthcare lobbying, filing 357 lobbying registrations. Interestingly, pharmaceutical lobbyists became the top spenders for the year 2020. The distinct plurality of health policy lobbying spend belonged to the pharmaceutical industry. Pfizer Inc., as one example, spent $5.13M in lobbying funds during Q1 2020. These lobbying efforts were geared towards securing appropriation of the COVID-19 relief funds. (Olson et al, 2020).

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