Here’s a brief snippet.  Check out the link below if your interested in reading more or in the statistics used to come to this conclusion. Thanks @kerim for sharing.

…health care is one of those areas where both popular opinion and sound public policy seem to take a backseat to protecting those stakeholders who benefit from the status quo. But can we actually see — statistically — the impact of lobbying by the insurance industry on the prospects for health care reform? I believe that the answer is yes.

The obvious issue of causality is also addressed.

(One caution: It’s possible that we’re confusing cause and effect: perhaps senators receive a lot of money from the insurance industry because they hold conservative positions on health care, rather than the other way around. Although I believe that accounting for ideology should correct for most of this, I’m open to suggestions on an alternative model design that would better be able to disentangle these effects.)

via FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Special Interest Money Means Longer Odds for Public Option.