In 2009, insurance providers such as Blue Cross-Blue Shield, United Health Group, and Aetna increased spending on lobbying by an average of 24% from 2008. For instance, the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Association increased its spending to $8.9 million in 2009 from $7.5 million in 2008.

The Hill, a Washington, DC, publication, studied mandatory disclosure reports submitted by the organizations, insurers and health maintenance organizations to arrive at these figures.

Overall, these organizations employed almost 1,000 lobbyists and spent almost $54M on lobbying efforts last year, according to the web site www.opensecrets.org by the Center for Responsive Politics.

While $54M is a considerable sum of money, it is still dwarfed by the amount spent by pharmaceutical manufacturers, who spent more than $200M on lobbying efforts in 2009.

*in millions of dollars; all figures from The Hill.