The group notes the legislation's sponsors – Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga. – received $16,000 and $12,500 respectively from the insurance sales lobby associations in the last election cycle, and that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, received $48,000.

According to a statement from Consumer Watchdog, "the insurance sales groups spent $3.9 million lobbying Congress last year and lobbying expenditures have likely increased in 2011," citing reports that at least one of the groups has hired outside lobbyists at Ernst & Young to build support for the legislation.

"This bill is not a small change to an isolated piece of the health reform law. It is an attack on health reform's central requirement that insurance companies eliminate excessive overhead spending and profits," said Carmen Balber, Washington director for Consumer Watchdog. "If Congress approves this special interest legislation, it will eliminate one of the few provisions in health reform that is meant to make health insurance more affordable. Consumers will pay more in health insurance premiums and lose out on one and a half billion dollars in rebates."

The organizations included in the Consumer Watchdog analysis of campaign contribution and lobbying expenditures are the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America and the National Association of Health Underwriters.

The IIABA was unavailable for comment Thursday, but a representative said a statement on the group's conference would be available soon.

Meanwhile, Mark E Ruquet, PropertyCasualty360.com, reports: Speaking at the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America's (IIABA) Legislative Conference breakfast, part of the association's Legislative Conference and Convention held here this week, Boehner said, "It is 18 months before the election and the president is out there giving a campaign speech as opposed to saying something serious about how we deal with the debt limit and how we deal with the fiscal crisis that we face."

He added, "I can't tell you how disappointed I was in what the president had to say."

He said he thought he and the president had an understanding about what needs to be done to reduce the deficit and that now is the time to address this crisis. Instead, he said the only concrete thing the president said he would do was "to raise more taxes."

"Washington doesn't have a revenue problem," Boehner declared to applause. "Washington has a spending problem."

He said the problem is affecting jobs because the government's borrowing and spending means less is being invested in the communities and sectors that create jobs, such as those jobs independent agents create in their communities.

He reiterated the Republicans' stance that the "health care law that you grapple with" needs to be repealed and that short of repealing it outright, "We will do all we can to dismantle it piece by piece."

Update:

According to IIABA, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., also addressed Big "I" members Thursday, noting her understanding that "some of the insurance companies decided to take [the Medical Loss Ratio] out of the commissions of the agents—that was not our intention," said the Louisiana Democrat. "I would like to work with you to try to fix that rather than repealing it. I fought to keep the insurance industry as part of this mix but we want the insurance industry to be responsible and accountable and we certainly want the agents to be respected and valued."

More medical loss ratio coverage from BenefitsPro:

• PPACA: NAIC panel backs MLR measure
• NAIC weighs broker bill
• NAIFA's agent survey exposes MLR impact
• NAIC ices agent comp MLR exclusion effort
• Special report: The MLR aftermath