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A hub of national opposition to health care reform is based in Charlotte, where a major law firm runs a secretive national group opposed to two central tenets of reform supported by President Obama and most Democrats in Congress.
Moore & Van Allen, one of North Carolina's largest law firms, is behind the lobbying efforts. It operates Americans for Quality and Affordable Healthcare for a group of its clients, who remain unidentified.
The group's 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 because the full scope of its operations is unclear. But its activities illustrate how some people are trying to shape public and congressional opinion through front groups - seemingly independent organizations that pursue their founders' goals while masking their identity.
Matthew French, spokesman for the law firm, acknowledged the connection to his law firm. He referred to "member companies of AQAH," the group's acronym.
"They want to stay in the background and off the front page," he said. "They want the message to be the important thing."
One Moore & Van Allen 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 health care reform. A third persuaded a Louisiana activist to post an opinion piece on a conservative blog.
French said the three employees of the law firm whose activities for AQAH were discovered by the Associated Press work for the firm's government affairs division, which the practice's Web site says helps clients, among other things, "shape public opinion, defeat adverse legislation."
None of the three is listed as an attorney.
One clue to the backers of the group may lie in the organization's goals: to oppose any government-run insurance option 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 N.C. insurers.
Moore & Van Allen has more than 300 attorneys and counts 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 wouldn't 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.
Three states have been particular targets for the group's activities: Nevada, Louisiana and Maine - all 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.
