ABSTRACT
In the midst of the Senate debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) in late 2009, Ben Nelson, a Democratic senator from Nebraska, was wavering on whether to support the bill. In what some humorously called the “Cornhusker Kickback,” Nelson obtained federal funding for Nebraska to cover its Medicaid expansion required by the bill. Less notoriously, Nelson also bargained for a provision that resulted in Nebraska insurance companies paying tens of millions of dollars less in fees than they otherwise would have. A story on the website The Huffington Post pointed out that in the last several years Nelson’s campaigns received $650,000 from the insurance industry. 1 The implication was clear—Ben Nelson rewarded his campaign contributors with millions of dollars in financial benefits. Did Ben Nelson make this deal because he received campaign contributions from the insurance industry? More generally, when and how do campaign contributions influence policy-making?
