Moore & Van Allen AQAHC

===

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare</a>

Americans for Quality and Affordable Healthcare (AQAHC) is a group operated by a law firm in Charlotte, North Carolina. The group opposes a government-run health insurance option, but supports a mandate requiring all citizens to purchase health insurance, views that exactly match those of the health insurance industry. The group does not reveal its funding. The Associated Press describes it as a "secretive" group. The insurance industry trade group, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=America%27s_Health_Insurance_Plans" title="America's Health Insurance Plans">America's Health Insurance Plans</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blue_Cross_and_Blue_Shield_Association" title="Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association">Blue Cross-Blue Shield</a> of North Carolina, and other large national and North Carolina insurers have disavowed any knowledge of the group.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#cite_note-0" title="">[1]</a>

AQAHC is operated by <a href="http://www.mvalaw.com/" class="external text" title="http://www.mvalaw.com/" rel="nofollow">Moore & Van Allen</a>, one of North Carolina's largest law firms. Rachel Maddow of MSNBC says Morre & Allen is "a big beltway P.R. and government affairs practice." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#cite_note-1" title="">[2]</a> When AP inquired with the law firm about the group, Matthew French, a spokesman for the law firm, said, "They want to stay in the background and off the front page ... They want the message to be the important thing."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#cite_note-2" title="">[3]</a>

Moore & Van Allen has more than 300 attorneys and represents "some of America's foremost hospitals, multi-institutional health care systems, physician groups, specialty providers, lenders and insurers."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#cite_note-3" title="">[4]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#cite_note-4" title="">[5]</a>

<tr>

<td>

<h2>Contents</h2>

[<a href="javascript:toggleToc()" class="internal" id="togglelink">hide</a>]</div>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#Sourcewatch_resources">1 Sourcewatch resources</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#External_resources">2 External resources</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#Contact">3 Contact</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#References">4 References</a></li>

</ul>

</td>

</tr>

</tbody></table>

<h2>Sourcewatch resources</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Front_groups" title="Front groups">Front groups</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Astroturf" title="Astroturf">Astroturf</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>External resources</h2>

<h2>Contact</h2>

Web site: <a href="http://www.aqah.org/" class="external free" title="http://www.aqah.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.aqah.org/</a>

No phone number or fax number available

No street or mailing address avaiable

No email address available

<h2>References</h2>

<li id="cite_note-0"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#cite_ref-0" title="">↑</a> Alan Fram, Associated Press <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXx2EwOrcwwVuvOK9etHsIdanfhwD9C02LI02" class="external text" title="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXx2EwOrcwwVuvOK9etHsIdanfhwD9C02LI02" rel="nofollow">THE INFLUENCE GAME: Front group fights health bill</a> November 15, 2009</li>

<li id="cite_note-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#cite_ref-1" title="">↑</a> Rachel Maddow <a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34040724/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/" class="external text" title="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34040724/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/" rel="nofollow">The Rachel Maddow Show</a> November 18, 2009</li>

<li id="cite_note-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#cite_ref-2" title="">↑</a> Alan Fram, Associated Press <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXx2EwOrcwwVuvOK9etHsIdanfhwD9C02LI02" class="external text" title="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXx2EwOrcwwVuvOK9etHsIdanfhwD9C02LI02" rel="nofollow">THE INFLUENCE GAME: Front group fights health bill</a> November 15, 2009</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#cite_ref-3" title="">↑</a> Alan Fram, Associated Press <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXx2EwOrcwwVuvOK9etHsIdanfhwD9C02LI02" class="external text" title="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXx2EwOrcwwVuvOK9etHsIdanfhwD9C02LI02" rel="nofollow">THE INFLUENCE GAME: Front group fights health bill</a> November 15, 2009</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Quality_and_Affordable_Healthcare#cite_ref-4" title="">��</a> JCL, Truthdig.com <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20091115_fronting_against_health_care/" class="external text" title="http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20091115_fronting_against_health_care/" rel="nofollow">Subverting Health Care Reform</a>, Ear to the Ground, November 15, 2009</li>

</ol>

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Front_groups_portal" title="Category:Front groups portal">Front groups portal</a> | <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Front_groups" title="Category:Front groups">Front groups</a> | <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Lobbying" title="Category:Lobbying">Lobbying</a> | <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Health" title="Category:Health">Health</a></div>

</div>

===

One operative tried to enlist trade groups in Maine to oppose government-run health coverage. Another helped a member of a Las Vegas conservative group appear on local talk radio to criticize the proposal. A third persuaded a Louisiana activist to post an opinion piece on a conservative blog.

These below-the-radar activities were the handiwork of a law firm in Charlotte, N.C., that operates a secretive group called Americans for Quality and Affordable Healthcare. The organization's sponsors remain a mystery — its Web site offers no clues, and the law firm won't say.

In a year that has seen hundreds of millions of dollars spent on health care lobbying and TV ads, the advocacy group's impact is hard to gauge since the full scope of its operations is unclear. But its activities illustrate how some are furtively trying to shape public and congressional opinion through front groups — seemingly independent organizations that pursue their founders' goals while masking their identity.

One clue to the mystery group may lie in its goals: to oppose any government-run insurance option, the approach favored by President Barack Obama and most Democrats, and to support requiring all Americans to buy insurance.

Those aims match two of the health insurance industry's top priorities. Several industry officials disavowed any knowledge of the group and said they're not behind it, including the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, Blue Cross-Blue Shield of North Carolina, and other large national and North Carolina insurers.

‘They want to stay in the background’

Presented evidence that the activities in Maine, Nevada and Louisiana involved employees of Moore & Van Allen, one of North Carolina's larger law firms, the firm's spokesman Matthew French acknowledged the connection and said the firm runs the health care group for clients. He declined to name them, but he referred to "member companies of AQAH," the group's acronym.

"They want to stay in the background and off the front page," said French. "They want the message to be the important thing."

Moore & Van Allen has more than 300 attorneys and numbers financial, manufacturing, technology and health companies among its clients, although it won't name them. It says they include "some of America's foremost hospitals, multi-institutional health care systems, physician groups, specialty providers, lenders and insurers."

French would not discuss the health group's financing or provide much detail about its activities, saying it gives materials to like-minded organizations to distribute to their members.

The three states where the group's activities have been noticed are focal points of the health care fight. Nevada is home to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat who is putting together the Senate's health overhaul bill. Louisiana and Maine are represented by two senators viewed as swing votes: Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

French acknowledged the group is hoping its activities will build pressure on lawmakers.

"Obviously we want to educate to an end purpose. Otherwise we're just kind of preaching to trees," he said.

No clues to sponsorship

The group's Web site says publicly run insurance would "drive all the major players out of the healthcare market," and it includes a page that lets people easily e-mail members of Congress to express those views.

The site does not reveal its sponsorship or provide an address or phone number, unusual for an Internet site trying to arouse public action. Even the owner of the site's Internet domain name is hidden, officially registered to Domains By Proxy Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz., company that shields the real owner's identity.

French said the three employees of the law firm whose activities for the group were discovered work for the firm's government affairs division, which the practice's Web site says helps clients "shape public opinion, defeat adverse legislation." None of the three is listed as an attorney.

The operatives' activities have included:

<ul>

<li>Several weeks ago, Lindsay Schroeder, a legislative aide at the law firm, approached the Maine Hospital Association in Augusta to see if it would participate in panel discussions about the health care overhaul, said association spokeswoman Mary Mayhew. "I assume she was trying to get some media coverage. I'm sure a part of it was to generate grass-roots activity," Mayhew said. Officials of at least three other Maine trade groups described similar visits around the same time, but they could not recall the woman's name or affiliation. All said they declined involvement.</li>

<li>A deputy director of the firm's government affairs team, Andrew Smith, helped a representative of the conservative Nevada Policy Research Council appear on a Las Vegas talk radio show to discuss health care, said council spokesman Andy Matthews.</li>

<li>Reid McMillan, another deputy director of government affairs, e-mailed an opinion column the health care group distributes to Ellen Carmichael, a conservative activist in Baton Rouge, La., who got it posted on a conservative blog called Healthcare Horserace.</li>

<li>...see related:</li>

</ul>

<h1 style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/02/05/80996/odom-profiteering/">Defending ‘Tea Party Profiteers,’ Odom Tells Activists We Should Reward Them With Our Pocketbooks</a></h1>

<p class="byline" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">By Lee Fang on Feb 5, 2010 at 6:00 pm

In a blog post yesterday, Republican strategist Eric Odom defended his tea party business strategy in response to <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/02/02/80291/tea-party-profiteers/">Think Progress’ reporting</a> on Tea Party Profiteers –- Republican consultants, political operatives, and others trying to take advantage of the tea party movement to make a profit and advance a special-interest agenda. To Odom, it is completely ethical for him and his business partners to “have created a means through which they can <a href="http://taxdayteaparty.com/2010/02/tea-party-profiteers/">pay some bills</a> through their activism:

And even more absurd is the fact that some tea party activists within the “free market" movement are upset that some entrepreneurs have created a means through which they can pay some bills through their activism. [...] But more importantly, we as “free market” activists should applaud their work in writing these books and we should reward them with our pocket books, not balk at them for doing so.

</blockquote>

Odom runs countless tea-party-themed websites around the country, many of them made to appear organic, or locally organized. Through his two <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/02/02/80291/tea-party-profiteers/">for-profit companies</a>, Strategic Activism, LLC and American Liberty Alliance, Odom is able to collect money from unknown sources while setting the agenda and the giving out marching orders for the tea party community forums he controls. As the AP reported, lobbyist <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33948872">Reid McMillian</a>helped write the anti-health reform content for “Healthcare Horserace,” one of Odom’s many websites.

</div>

 ----

The Moore & Van Allen Environmental team brings deep experience and nuanced environmental knowledge in environmental regulatory compliance, enforcement and litigation to its diverse client base—ranging from manufacturers to environmental consultants, municipalities, trust departments and a variety of other businesses.

Boasting advanced scientific and legal training and know-how in environmental issues, our noted environmental attorneys publish and lecture widely, teach at noted universities and have served as expert witnesses on complex environmental issues.  Additionally, our attorneys have prior experience as in-house environmental counsel for multinational corporations, the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal EPA.

Team members provide sophisticated, cost-effective representation to both companies and individuals in enforcement actions, toxic tort litigation and prosecution of environmental crimes.  They’ve also represented companies and groups of companies in environmental class-action suits and before Congress and state legislative bodies.

Their expertise extends across the full spectrum of environmental issues and actions, from hazardous and radioactive waste to air pollution and groundwater, from noise pollution and land use to coastal development and wetlands, from environmental crimes to environmental lobbying.

Practice focus:

<li>Permitting</li>

<li>Compliance advice and auditing for operative businesses</li>

<li>Due diligence for real estate lending and other transactions</li>

<li>Defense in administrative, civil and criminal litigation, including mass exposure and toxic tort claims</li>

<li>Lobbying</li>

<li>Hazardous wastes and toxic substances </li>

<li>Solid wastes </li>

<li>Low-level radioactive wastes </li>

<li>Surface water</li>

<li>Groundwater</li>

<li>Air pollution</li>

<li>Underground storage tanks</li>

<li>Occupational health</li>

<li>Coastal and mountain development</li>

<li>Watershed regulations</li>

<li>Wetland regulations</li>

<li>Sedimentation</li>

<li>Zoning</li>

<li>Noise pollution</li>

<li>Advise and assist in civil and criminal enforcement actions, including penalties, investigations and information-gathering</li>

</ul>

Moore & Van Allen AQAHC

Attachments