AP: White House 'met early and often with lobbyists' on health care

White House officials "met early and often with lobbyists" involved in the health care reform effort, visitor logs obtained by the Associated Press show.

The White House on Wednesday released some 1,600 records of visitors to the White House since the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January. AP reports that among the visitors were several health care experts who advocate a more radical overhaul of the health care system than the one being debated in Congress. Eliot Fisher of Dartmouth Medical School, a vocal opponent of inefficiency in health care, and David Himmelstein of Harvard Medical School, a supporter of single-payer universal health care, were both on the list.

Also on the list were a plethora of health insurance CEOs and lobbyists, including the CEOs of Blue Cross Blue Shield, Kaiser Health Plans and the heads of pharma lobby group PhRMA and the American Hospital Association.

Rachel Slajda at TalkingPointsMemo reports that the visitor logs also show that the CEO of energy company Chevron, David. J. O'Reilly, visited the White House five times since Obama took office, meeting with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and economic policy director Larry Summers, among others.

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