While patients, taxpayers and lawmakers debate the impact of the health care law that President Obama signed on Tuesday, one result of the epic battle is clear: a bonanza for Washington, D.C., lobbyists.

Among lobbying firms that worked the issue, the richest generally got richer. A Center for Public Integrity ranking of the top dozen firms with the most clients involved in health care last year reveals a host of high-profile K Street concerns — companies like Patton Boggs LLP, Alston & Bird LLP, Holland & Knight LLP and the Podesta Group Inc.

About 1,750 businesses and organizations spent at least $1.2 billion in 2009 on lobbying teams to work on the health care overhaul and other issues, according to an analysis of Senate lobby disclosure documents.

Since lobbyists are not required to itemize the amount spent on each issue, the precise amount that went to the health care debate remains unknown. But if only 10 percent of that lobbying spending went toward the health care overhaul, the amount would total $120 million — and that’s very likely a record for a single year’s spending on a particular issue, experts say.

Highly Connected Lobbyists

The clients who hired these firms ranged from the most influential industry associations to small, nonprofit advocacy groups. Many top companies and organizations hired more than one of the top firms to lobby their interests. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, for example, hired Capital Tax Partners LLP, Dutko Worldwide, Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti Inc. and 22 other outside firms, in addition to its in-house lobbyists. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hired Patton Boggs, Podesta Group, Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti and Bryan Cave LLP.

From former congressional aides to former agency heads, the firms unleashed highly connected lobbyists to push their clients’ agendas, including Thomas Scully, a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President George W. Bush, and Colette Desmarais, a former top health policy aide to Republican Sen. Charles Grassley. Scully is now a lobbyist with Alston & Bird LLP and Desmarais works for Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti.

Paul Kim, a partner at Foley Hoag LLP — the only health lobbyist willing to speak on the record — downplayed the importance of personal connections with Congress and agency staff. Knowledge of the issues is more important, he said.

“I think what we have found is it hasn’t been head count or access, necessarily, that is most important in serving clients,” Kim said.

Pharmaceutical companies, which stand to garner increased profits from the newly insured under the bill, made up the majority of Foley Hoag’s health overhaul clients. Kim said the lobbying work sprang from other legal work the firm does for the drug industry.

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Comment by Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: to measure “influence” another way, there are now six health industry lobbyists for each member of Congress. By our way of thinking, ONE is one too many.

See, Fox News, health care, and the right-wing nervous breakdown, Media Matters for America, March 23, 2010, by Eric Boehlert.

See, Obama to Republicans Campaigning on Health Care Law: ‘Go for It’, ABC News Politics, March 25, 2010, by Z. Byron Wolf, Jonathan Karl, and Huma Khan.