Sununu’s health insurance ties follow him into Senate race

Republican John Sununu’s ties to the health insurance industry may be a drag on his comeback bid for the U.S. Senate.

Sununu represented New Hampshire in the Senate from 2003 to 2009 and is running again this year. High health care costs have emerged as a major issue in the race.

After leaving office, Sununu spent nine years at the lobbying firm Akin Gump, where he advised clients in the financial services sector. In this same period, the firm also represented large health insurers like Liberty Mutual and Alameda Health Alliance.

A 2023 ProPublica report detailed the kind of work Akin Gump may have done for these clients. It documented how AHIP, a trade group representing health insurers that was also represented by Akin Gump, lobbied against a proposed Obama-era rule requiring insurers to publicly disclose how many claims they deny.

The proposal never took effect and was later withdrawn by President Donald Trump.

Another Akin Gump client during Sununu’s tenure was UnitedHealth Group, the world’s largest health care company by revenue. Akin Gump said it advised UnitedHealth Group on mergers and acquisitions.

A 2013 Akin Gump press release boasted that the firm shepherded UnitedHealth Group through “three health plan acquisitions with a combined value of roughly $4 billion.” This came on the heels of a congressional investigation that determined UnitedHealth Group and other top insurers had denied care to 651,000 people over a two-year period.

Ten years later, UnitedHealth Group was again accused of denying claims at an unusually high rate. The denials were attributed to an AI model that was later discovered to have a 90% error rate.

Sununu has also backed legislation favorable to the health insurance industry.

In 2017, Sununu wrote a CNBC op-ed endorsing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), a Republican law that cut the corporate income tax rate to 21%, down from the historical 35%. The law is projected to add $1.5 trillion to the national deficit by 2034.

UnitedHealth Group said in 2018 that the law resulted in a $1.2 billion favorable non-cash revaluation.

Last year, Sununu endorsed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), which indefinitely extended the 21% corporate tax rate. The extension is partially paid for with a $1 trillion cut to Medicaid that could force up to 29,000 New Hampshire residents to lose their health insurance.

Both OBBB and TCJA passed with only Republican votes and were signed into law by Trump.

In 2008, Sununu cosponsored legislation that would have allowed health insurers to deny coverage for preexisting conditions.

Sununu’s Democratic opponent this year is Rep. Chris Pappas. A recent New York Times/Siena University poll shows Pappas leading by five points.