DCI: From Smokers' Rights to Patients' Rights

The DCI Group, a lobbying and public relations firm known for creating front groups for industry clients and Republican campaigns, is behind a new anti-health reform front group, the Coalition to Protect Patients' Rights (CPPR). "CPPR has been organizing lobbying efforts against health reform and publishing op-eds across the country with misinformation about the public option," reports Think Progress. "While it is unclear who is funding" the CPPR / DCI campaign, "DCI has in the past worked for health insurance companies. In 2002, the American Prospect reported that DCI had been hired by the Health Benefits Coalition, a trade association of for-profit HMOs trying to 'thwart congressional action on the patients' bill of rights.'" DCI has also worked for the tobacco industry, setting up fake "smokers' rights" groups to fight public health measures.