If the status quo, profit-driven healthcare industry was so defensible and great, why do they need spend a third of a billion dollars on campaign contributions?

To enhance their clout, insurers, drug producers and other parts of the health industry have made over $372 million in campaign contributions to lawmakers since 2000, according to a report released Wednesday by Common Cause, the nonpartisan public interest group. Nearly half the total -- $178 million -- has gone to members of House and Senate committees that oversee health programs. They have also spent over $3 billion lobbying, with their annual expenditures growing yearly, the study said.