Former Bush-era Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson’s effort to flick off his connection to Obamacare, an issue in his his Senate primary fight, is getting gunked up more by critics who say his many medical industry clients stand to gain from the controversial law.
Secrets hears that his GOP foes and Democratic critics have been mining Thompson’s financial disclosure forms for ties to medical and pharmaceutical firms he’s worked with that stand to benefit from Obamacare–and there are many. “He’s trying to cut his ties to Obamacare, but he helped companies lobbying for it and they profited off it,” said critic armed with a white paper detailing those activities.
Some examples: Thompson served on the board of the Marshfield Clinic, designated as a “national model for health care reform,” a la Obamacare. He was an advisor for U.S. Preventive Medicine, which advocated for the reforms. And he serves on the board of Centene Corp., which touted the law.
Thompson, who advocates repeal of Obamacare in his campaign, never backed the president’s plan, though the administration used his support for generic reform as an endorsement. In fact, he’s been fighting hard to shuck those claims, many coming from his GOP critics such as the Club For Growth which supports primary challenger Rep. Mark Neumann. Behind the scenes Democrats are helping beat Thompson up too, feeling that he would be harder to beat in the general election than Neumann, who trails Thompson in polls.
The fight shows just how difficult Obamacare is for candidates–even those who simply whispered support for health reform–and one Thompson, his surrogates and aides are fighting hard to dispel, to the point of producing a two-minute video assault on the law titled “Repeal and Replace Obamacare.”
