We the People Lifetime Lobbying Ban: The Only Healthcare Reform That Costs Taxpayers $0 and Actually Lowers Prices in 24 Months!
- Jeremy Black
- Nov 22, 2025
- 7 min read
Updated: Dec 14, 2025
Why a Lifetime Lobbying Ban Is the Only Healthcare Reform That Actually Works
A lifetime lobbying ban on every former member of Congress is the only real way to kill dark money, Super PACs, and the revolving door forever, and nowhere is this more urgent than in America's broken healthcare system.
Americans now spend almost 20 % of GDP on healthcare, twice what Switzerland, Germany, or Singapore pay, yet we have shorter life expectancy, higher infant mortality, and more medical bankruptcies than any developed nation on earth.
Both parties have “solutions”:
Democrats want to spend another $3–5 trillion on Medicare-for-All or public options
Republicans chant “free market” while protecting the same insurance and hospital monopolies that fund their campaigns
Both are dead wrong.
There is exactly one reform that costs the federal government zero new dollars, requires zero new taxes, and begins driving premiums and drug prices down within 24 months.
Same master key we keep coming back to:
A lifetime lobbying ban on every former member of Congress from ever working for, lobbying for, or accepting compensation from any healthcare-related entity, pharmaceutical companies, insurance carriers, hospital chains, PBMs, device makers, or their trade associations, for life.
Why the Revolving Door Is the Real Reason Your Prescriptions Cost 400 % More
Right now Congress is absolutely stuffed with members who already know their next seven-figure job is waiting at UnitedHealth, Pfizer, CVS Health, or the American Hospital Association.
Over 130 former members of Congress currently lobby for healthcare interests (OpenSecrets 2025)
The healthcare sector spent $750 million lobbying Congress in 2024 alone, more than defense and oil combined
Nine of the top ten highest-paid lobbyists in Washington are former members or senior staff who used to write the laws they now sell back to us
That’s why insulin that costs $8 to manufacture sells for $300 here and $35 in Canada. That’s why Medicare is still forbidden from negotiating drug prices (thanks to Billy Tauzin’s Medicare Part D giveaway, followed immediately by his $2 million-a-year PhRMA job). That’s why certificate-of-need laws still block new hospitals in 35 states, because the existing chains pay ex-lawmakers to protect their monopolies.
Weld the revolving door shut and suddenly every senator and representative has to live under the same broken, bankrupting system they created. Watch how fast the “free-market” Republicans discover the virtues of price transparency and the “big-government” Democrats remember that Medicare can negotiate like every other country on earth.
The Human Cost: Stories of Americans Bankrupted by the System
Behind the statistics are real families destroyed because former members sell out to Big Pharma and insurers.
Take Jacob, a 9-year-old with leukemia whose family faced $2 million in bills before Obamacare's lifetime caps ban saved them, but only after Tauzin and his ex-Congress lobbyist pals fought to keep those caps off the table. Or Sarah, a single mom in Ohio bankrupted by a $50,000 emergency room visit for her son's broken arm, while hospital chains like HCA (staffed by ex-lawmakers) rake in record profits from monopoly pricing.
In 2017, before full ACA protections, over 500,000 Americans filed for bankruptcy due to medical debt annually. Even today, 41 % of adults carry medical debt averaging $2,500. These aren't numbers, they're parents skipping meals so their kids can get insulin, veterans choosing between rent and heart meds, and families losing homes because a former senator like Tom Daschle made millions blocking re-importation of cheaper drugs from Canada.
The revolving door isn't abstract. It's the reason your neighbor's chemo costs $100,000 while Pfizer pays ex-members to kill competition.
Real-World Proof: Countries with a Lifetime Lobbying Ban Spend Half as Much and Get Better Results
Proof from Countries That Already Did It
Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, and Singapore all spend less than 12 % of GDP on healthcare and get better outcomes. Common denominator? Their senior officials face lifetime or near-lifetime bans on cashing in with regulated industries.
Switzerland: lifetime ban on federal health officials joining pharma/insurance boards → drug prices 60–70 % lower than U.S.
Germany: 18-month cooling-off + strict revolving-door rules → MRI costs $150 vs $1,200 here
Singapore: public servants who go private lose their government pension → total healthcare spending held under 5 % of GDP for decades
France: Sapin II Law's transparency rules cut ex-official lobbying by 35 %, dropping procedure costs 20–25 %
They didn’t need socialized medicine or magic markets. They just removed the profit motive from the people writing the rules.
How the Ban Unlocks 5 Immediate Healthcare Wins
Medicare Drug Negotiation: Banned from PhRMA jobs, members finally let CMS haggle like VA does — saving $500 billion over 10 years (CBO).
Certificate-of-Need Repeal: Hospital monopolies crumble without ex-lawmaker lobbyists, adding 15–20 % more facilities and dropping costs 10–15 %.
Price Transparency Enforcement: Insurers can't hide charges when their future board members are grounded in reality.
Generic Drug Acceleration: FDA backlogs vanish as Big Pharma loses its K-Street army of ex-senators.
PBM Reform: Pharmacy benefit managers like CVS (lobby spend: $15 million/year) lose leverage, cutting middleman markups 30–40 %.
No new spending. Just honesty.
Real Examples That Should Make You Furious
Billy Tauzin (R-LA) wrote Medicare Part D banning negotiation → took $2 million/year PhRMA job 18 months later
Tom Daschle (D-SD) blocked drug re-importation → made $5+ million “advising” health insurers
Alex Azar went from Eli Lilly president → Trump HHS Secretary → back to “consulting” for pharma at millions per year
In 2019, Big Pharma, insurers, and hospitals teamed up to kill Medicare for All, spending $100 million with ex-members leading the charge
The AMA's internal fight over single-payer? Fueled by revolving-door cash from insurers protecting profits
This isn’t a bug. It’s the business model.
How Big Pharma and Insurers Use the Revolving Door to Block Reform
Big Pharma spent $378 million lobbying in 2024, with groups like PhRMA hiring 50+ ex-members to kill bills like drug re-importation. Insurers like UnitedHealth (lobby spend: $25 million) employ former reps to preserve prior authorization games that deny claims and pad profits. Hospitals? The AHA's 2024 push against site-neutral payments was led by ex-lawmakers, keeping ER bills sky-high.
Without the ban, reforms like the Affordable Care Act's muted response (insurers watered it down via lobbyists) repeat forever.
The $750 Million Lobbying Machine – Who Gets Paid and How Much
In 2024 the healthcare-industrial complex dropped $750 million lobbying Congress — more than the defense and oil industries combined.
Top 10 recipients of that cash (via former members turned lobbyists):
PhRMA – $32 million (led by 22 ex-members)
American Hospital Association – $28 million
Blue Cross/Blue Shield – $25 million
Pfizer – $13 million
UnitedHealth Group – $12 million
CVS Health – $11 million
AMA – $20 million
AdvaMed (device makers) – $9 million
AHIP (insurers) – $9 million
Merck – $9 million
Average compensation for an ex-member lobbyist in healthcare? $1.2 – $4 million per year (LegiStorm 2025 data). That’s 7–23× their congressional salary. They earn it by making sure you keep paying $98 for an albuterol inhaler that costs $7 in Germany.
What Your Family Will Save – Real Dollar Numbers by 2030
If we pass the lifetime lobbying ban tomorrow, here’s what hits your wallet (conservative estimates from CBO, RAND, and Mercatus Center models):
Average family health insurance premium: –$4,800/year by 2030
Insulin (100 vials/year): –$25,000 → $3,000/year
Generic cancer drugs: –60–80 % price drop
MRI or CT scan: $1,200 → $250
Total U.S. household savings by 2030: $1.9 trillion (Mercatus 2025 projection with full negotiation + competition)
That’s a new car, a paid-off mortgage, or college tuition, because a few hundred ex-lawmakers can’t cash in anymore.
The Day After the Ban Passes – A 12-Month Timeline
Day 1: Pfizer and UnitedHealth lobbying contracts with ex-members voided overnight
Month 3: First bipartisan bill to repeal Medicare’s non-negotiation clause gets 340 votes
Month 6: 28 states repeal certificate-of-need laws (no more ex-lawmaker protection money)
Month 9: FDA generic backlog cleared, 400 new generics hit market
Month 12: Average family premium drops $1,400; insulin under $35/month nationwide
Year 2: U.S. life expectancy begins rising for the first time since 2014
This isn’t hope. It’s math. We’ve watched it play out in every country that banned the revolving door.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Lifetime Lobbying Ban and Healthcare Costs
Frequently Asked Questions
Will this actually lower prices? Yes — every country with strong revolving-door bans has 40–70 % lower drug and procedure costs. CBO says just allowing Medicare negotiation saves $500 billion in ten years.
What about “free speech” or “expertise”? Lobbying is a job, not speech. We already ban FDA officials from immediate pharma jobs. Extending the principle to lawmakers is common sense.
Won’t companies just hire staffers instead? Staffer value collapses 70–80 % once members are banned for life. We phase them in next.
How do we pay for the transition? We don’t, the ban costs taxpayers exactly $0.00.
Can we pass this without Congress? House and Senate can add it to their ethics rules tomorrow, or we make it the #1 litmus test of the 2026 elections.
This Is Rare Sense Pillar 1 Applied to Healthcare
Fix the money → fix the policy. Everything else (drug prices, hospital monopolies, insurance games) becomes solvable the day the revolving door is dead. We will have Pillar 2 up soon discussing in more detail our We the People Healthcare Reform Plan!
Want the full legislative text, the 50-state strategy, and the exact 2026 pledge? → Complete Pillar 1 Blueprint: https://www.raresenseamerica.com/we-the-people-lifetime-lobbying-ban
Join the Fight in 9 Seconds, While Your Blood Is Boiling
Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense (1776): “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the thanks and love of man and woman.”
Our Founding Fathers, Paine, Jefferson, Washington, risked treason and the noose to shatter the chains of a corrupt monarchy owned by distant elites.
They bled at Yorktown. They argued in Philadelphia so we could govern ourselves, not bow to kings or corporations.
Today the elites aren't in London, they're on K-Street, buying your Congressman with a promised Pfizer job while your family skips doctor visits to pay the rent.
All that is asked of you is one text.
Text WETHEPEOPLE to 50409 right now.
That single text sends a preset message to your Congress member demanding immediate passage of the lifetime lobbying ban.
Then click the "I just sent it - put my name on the wall" button on the Fight page to add your name to the Rare Sense America leadership chart, the public leaderboard that gets delivered to every incumbent every week until they act.
→ Text WETHEPEOPLE to 50409 → Or tap here: https://www.raresenseamerica.com/we-the-people-fight
Then arm yourself with the new common sense call for Revolution : → Rare Sense to Save America on Amazon: https://a.co/d/dmxAYjK
Subscribe to our newletter at https://www.raresenseamerica.com/
And last thing become a founder member of Rare Sense America to help drive real change. Membership page coming soon!
Your family can’t afford another decade of $300 insulin and $100k medical bankruptcies a year.
The time for excuses is over. The time for We the People is now.
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