Advocate executives donate to American Hospital Association PAC which in turn donates to almost everybody in Washington, DC.

According to campaignmoney.org Advocate Health Care executives, including Dan Schneider, Lee B. Sacks, MD, and James Skosburgh, have donated money to the American Hospital Association. That should be no surprise because the AHA goal is for the welfare of the hospitals. However, according to several AHA employees, they are not advocates for the welfare of the patients.

George Burkstrom, of the AHA Membership Department, stated that he was not inclined to learn about wrongdoing committed by AHA members. Even though I never stated to him otherwise, he repeatedly told me that AHA would not intercede in such matters. This is one of the ways people at these institutions attempt to derail conversations. It is obvious that they do not have judicial jurisdiction over their members, but they make that an issue in order to justify their overlooking any wrongdoing committed by its members.

I reminded Burkstrom that our conversation was on the record, and then I asked him if AHA's only concern is that the members pay their dues and donate to its PAC, but he refused to answer and then he hung up on me. Of course, I knew before speaking with anybody at AHA, what its position is, but I had to give them an opportunity to provide it in their own words before writing about it. Before he hung up, Burkstrom told me that I should speak with somebody in AHA's media relations department. I left a message with that office, but I did not receive a callback.

The AHA PAC contributes money to hordes of Members of the US Senate and the US House, in fact they cover themselves evenly. All but one of the current members of the US Senate Finance Committee have received money from AHA PAC. The AHA has also contributed money to the campaigns of alleged health care advocates Senators Barack Obama, Richard Durbin, and Edward Kennedy.