16 Apr 2012 Eli Lilly Executives to be Questioned About Company Lobbying for Unpopular, Unconstitutional ObamaCare Legislation

Shareholder to Ask Company to “Reset” Its Approach and Pledge Support for Free-Market Health Care Reforms in Coming Legislative Battles

Indianapolis, IN / Washington, D.C. – The National Center for Public Policy Research plans to question Eli Lilly executives over the company’s lobbying for the ObamaCare legislation Monday, April 16 at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana.

National Center General Counsel Justin Danhof will ask Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter to renounce the company’s past support of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act in light of its questionable constitutionality and intrusive, unaffordable big-government structure.

Eli Lilly is a member of the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a lobbying organization that committed over $150 million to promote the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – commonly known as ObamaCare.

“It is not too late for the company’s leadership to show shareholders and consumers that they have had a change of heart,” said Danhof. “The company needs to renounce past support for ObamaCare and commit itself to promoting free-market reforms that will empower consumers and prevent America from ultimately adopting a single-payer health care system like Britain’s. A single-payer system would be a death-knell for companies such as Eli Lilly because it rations care and stifles innovative new drugs that save lives, improve the human condition and keep companies such as Eli Lilly solvent.”

Lilly’s stance on Obama’s signature health care law may harm the company’s reputation and its bottom line. A recent Rasmussen Report poll shows that 54 percent of likely voters favor repeal of the entire law. And two-thirds of Americans oppose ObamaCare’s cornerstone – the individual mandate.

“At the time it promoted ObamaCare, the White House, Senate and House of Representatives were all controlled by liberal Democrats,” added Danhof. “Given the immense power of the federal government, Eli Lilly’s management may have believed back then that it had to go along with ObamaCare to survive. But now it is ObamaCare itself that is in dire peril – many expect the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down all or a substantial part of it by early summer – and the country may be at the start of a major new push for a new kind of health care reform; one that does not reply on a big-government model. Eli Lilly now has the opportunity to ‘reset’ its policy, reject its support for the big-government health care model and work with free-market groups and Congressional Leaders such as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) for a health care system that works better for everyone and doesn’t run the country into bankruptcy. Eli Lilly stands at a crossroads; I intend to ask its management which route it plans to take.”

The National Center For Public Policy Research is an Eli Lilly stockholder.

The National Center For Public Policy Research is a conservative, free-market, non-profit think-tank established in 1982. It is supported by the voluntary gifts of over 100,000 individual recent supporters, receiving approximately one percent of its revenue from corporate sources. Contributions to it are tax-deductible.

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