SACRAMENTO, Calif. ā In the age of Black Panther, Thor and Captain America, Californiaās health insurance plans bring you ā¦ A giant, androgynous red heart.
The health insurers debuted their bubbly superhero Tuesday in front of Californiaās stately Capitol building. The heart, who wore black booties and white, Michael Jackson-esque gloves, had no name. No matter. S/he bopped. S/he waved at school children. S/he flashed the thumbs-up. S/he made the Capitol feel a bit like Disneyland.
Passers-by couldnāt help but giggle at the insurance industryās mute mascot. And they certainly seemed to have no clue that the anthropomorphized heart was merely the latest PR stunt in an ongoing feud between two health system titans: health insurers and drugmakers.
āItās very cute. I donāt know exactly whatās going on. ā¦ What is happening here exactly?ā asked Christine Danho, 25, an administrative assistant who stopped to snap a picture.
In recent years, the two deep-pocketed industries have pointed fingers at each other over the rising cost of prescription drugs, each side accusing the other of who need life-saving medicines.
The which bankrolled the event, introduced its heart āheroā and āhigh-priced drug nemesisā with fighting words for drugmakers.
āPharma has made a practice of swarming the State Capitol with their minions working to keep drug prices sky high,ā the lobbying groupās press release proclaimed.
True, drugmaker Pfizer shelled out $732,454 in 2017 to lobby California policymakers on health care, and the California Life Sciences Association, comprised largely of pharmaceutical companies, spent $522,323, according to the California Secretary of State.
But among the top five spenders in health care lobbying last year? The health plan association itself, which doled out about $1.2 million.
Drugmakers called the health plans out on their own tactics.
āLike a broken record, the insurers continue to blame everyone else for high health care costs when their policies are making lifesaving medicines increasingly more expensive for patients,ā said Priscilla VanderVeer, a vice president with Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
VanderVeerās colleague, Nicole Kasabian Evans, was a spokeswoman for the health plans not so long ago, but now she helps run PhRMAās public relations strategy in California. And she had no qualms about criticizing her former employerās media strategy.
āHonestly, are they generating any real news out of this event?ā Kasabian Evans asked. Itās nothing more than āsomeone in a costume hand[ing] out tchotchkes,ā she declared.
The health plan group said it timed the event to coincide with , and highlighted three heart disease medications on a poster board whose prices have spiked in recent years.
During the first hour of the event, the heart looked lonely, hoping for a little attention. But as the sun warmed the air and an unrelated rally brought people to the Capitol steps, onlookers cozied up to the health plansā cherry red mascot for photo-ops or grabbed free heart-shaped stress balls.
Eric Wang ran into the heart-shaped mascot while visiting Californiaās Capitol. He said high drug prices are āsomething we need to figure out.ā (Pauline Bartolone/KHN)
Lila Cervantes posed for a photo with the heart mascot at the Capitol in Sacramento. When it comes to insurers and pharmaceutical companies feuding over health costs, she said, āthereās probably a lot of right and a lot of wrong on both sides.ā (Pauline Bartolone/KHN)
Eric Wang, visiting from Los Angeles for a meeting with legislators, said opposing groups need to āwork together to figure out a way to make our health care system affordable.ā
But itās unlikely the feud between drugmakers and health insurers will dissipate anytime soon. The federal government is only taking small steps to control drug prices, which means the debate over drug prices will continue to flare in state houses around the country.
āThatās where the fight has shifted,ā said Steve Pearson, an expert on medical costs with Ā the . āThereās going to be a lot more money from both industries.ā
Lila Cervantes, who was at the Capitol Ā advocating for higher education funding, posed for a picture with the heart, but she admitted later that she didnāt know much about the war between health insurers and drugmakers.
āThereās probably a lot of right and a lot of wrong on both sides,ā Cervantes said. āWe gottaā sometimes take the politics out of it and ā¦ do whatās best for the people.ā
This story was produced byĀ , which publishesĀ , an editorially independent service of theĀ .