Former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has made his political career portraying himself as a populist; however, FEC data reviewed by Breitbart News found that, over his career, he received nearly $400,000 in donations from lobbyists and corporate PACs that represent some of the largest health insurance companies.
Brown aims to make a political comeback this November by using the mantle of high health insurance premiums facing those in the Buckeye State.
He wrote last November, “Half a million Ohioans are facing monthly premiums that are double or triple what they were paying. This is a bad deal for Ohioans. It does nothing to help the out-of-control costs people are facing. We can’t allow health care costs to skyrocket and not be willing to fight. This is a problem created by Jon Husted and his special interest friends. At any point over the last 40 days, Jon Husted could have voted to reopen the government and helped people afford health care. But Jon Husted has done nothing to keep health care costs down.”
Brown has used these talking points to attack Sen. John Husted (R-OH), who he aims to oust in November.
The former senator lamented last September that most politicians appear to be bought and paid for by big corporations.
“The system is rigged. And a lot of voters think it’s because most politicians are in the pockets of big corporations — unfortunately, they’re right,” he explained.
However, data reviewed by Breitbart News found that Brown, over his career in the Senate, has received nearly $400,000 in donations from corporate PACs and lobbyists of some of the largest health insurance companies that benefit from his support of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies. This includes Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Centene, and Aetna making donations to Friends of Sherrod Brown, America Works PAC, or Canary Fund.
Brown has taken:
- $112,171.96 from UnitedHealth lobbyists.
- $107,514.05 from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield lobbyists
- $16,500 from Blue Cross Blue Shield’s corporate PAC
- $47,650 from Aetna & CVS lobbyists
- $7,000 from Aetna and CVS’s corporate PACs, including after the two companies merged.
- $22,170.18 from Cigna lobbyists
- $6,500 from Cigna’s corporate PAC
- $8,000 from Centene’s PAC
- $9,650 from Molina lobbyists
- $11,000 from Molina’s corporate PAC
- $1,750 from Kaiser Permanente lobbyists
Beyond health insurance lobbyists’ support for Brown, his backing of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies, more formally known as the Enhanced Premium Tax Credit (EPTC), raises concerns about waste, fraud, and abuse, and the subsidies’ limited ability to lower healthcare costs.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study in December, which found that the enhanced Obamacare subsidies are rife with waste, fraud, and abuse:
The GAO, as part of its analysis, conducted covert operations, which included fictitious identities that flood insurers with unjustified subsides. It found that 100 percent of the fake applicants were approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as recently as 2024, with 90 percent of the fraudulent applicants continuing to receive coverage in 2025.
A Husted spokesperson noted that the senator has proposed legislation that would seek to remove fraud from the program and extend the subsidies.
“Senator Husted proposed a bill that would have extended the subsidies and prevented premium hikes on all Americans while also working to actually lower the cost of health care and weed out fraud,” the spokesman said in December. “I’m surprised to hear there would be opposition to such a commonsense compromise.”
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have pushed legislation that would lower health insurance premiums by 11 percent through cost-sharing reduction payments.