Republican health policy staffers have fled the Hill for consulting and lobbying gigs. | JAY WESTCOTT/POLITICO GOP health staffers jump ship

If you want to see how frustrated Republicans are with health care, just look at their staffs.

Since the election, one top Republican health policy staffer after another has fled the Hill for consulting and lobbying gigs that promise better pay, fewer hours and less obstructionism.


Of course, there’s always a natural shifting of staff after each election. But health staffers say the flood of resignations after President Barack Obama won reelection is evidence of a deeper disillusionment.

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It’s been a bumpy few years for these staffers, most of whom participated in the health care law negotiations in 2009 and 2010, watched as Democrats passed the law without a single Republican’s vote, stood by as their bosses continually tried — and failed — to ditch the law and saw GOP hopes for entitlement reform fall by the wayside.

Now, many of them are saying enough is enough.

“I think there were a lot of Republican staff who stuck around in the hopes they would actually make real substantive changes,” said Chuck Clapton, a former HELP health policy director who left for Hogan Lovells. “Obviously, the likelihood of that happening has diminished significantly.”

Among the first to depart was Katy Spangler, former deputy health policy director for the Senate HELP Committee, who left last June for VBID Health, a firm that designs and promotes health plans. But the real exodus began after the election, with Howard Cohen leaving his post as chief health counsel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in December to start his own consulting business.

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In January, HELP lost Clapton and health counsel Keith Flanagan. Energy and Commerce Committee Chief Health Counsel Ryan Long also jumped ship for BGR Group.

February saw the departure of Emily Porter, health policy adviser to Speaker John Boehner. She is joining The Nickles Group.

And Thursday was the final day on the Hill for Dan Elling, staff director for the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee and an influential GOP voice as Congress passed the health care law. He’s accepted a job at Alston & Bird.

“There is a general level of frustration that everybody realizes we have these problems on the immediate horizon that need to be addressed — and there doesn’t seem to be the universal appetite to deal with these things,” Elling said.

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Another former senior staffer said, “Honestly, I think there’s been so much brain drain over the past six months of really excellent people leaving the Hill because they’re so frustrated and they’re tired of beating their heads against the wall.”

Most of these major departures have been among Republicans, but some key Democrats have left as well. Purvee Kempf, longtime health counsel for Energy and Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman, left her post March 1 for a job with the D.C. insurance exchange.

Of course, a variety of personal reasons are mixed into each staffer’s decision to leave, but health policy frustrations have been mounting for Republican staffers.

For a while after the health care law was passed, some thought their bosses and Democrats would still find ways to work together on Medicare, Medicaid and improving the law. And there were times when the prospect of at least some entitlement reform seemed within reach, as health care staffers chipped in ideas for groups like Obama’s deficit reduction commission and the supercommittee.

But these Republicans said their hopes have dimmed with Obama’s reelection and the growing partisan divide in Congress.

Elling, of the Ways and Means Committee, agreed. “It seemed like the big deal was just out of grasp,” he said, “and then to see the president get reelected to completely tack to the left — didn’t leave many hopes we were going to have a willing partner to try to address these issues.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 9:00 a.m. on March 8, 2013.