Clinton camp got behind on health insurance bills
A spokesman says the bills are paid now, but in February two companies were owed about $300,000 for premiums.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton promotes healthcare as a top focus of her presidential bid, but her campaign's accountants aren't staying on message.
The campaign reported nearly $300,000 worth of unpaid health insurance bills for campaign staff as part of $8.73 million in debts, Federal Election Commission records show.
The New York Democrat's campaign fund owed $229,000 to Aetna Healthcare and $63,000 to CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield for unpaid premiums as of Feb. 29, the latest information available in federal filings.
Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said that the campaign had paid the debts in full and that no campaign staff member had suffered a gap in coverage.
"Sometimes invoices are not paid immediately because we need additional information for our records, or to verify expenses," Carson wrote in an e-mail.
The lag in paying insurance bills is a sign of a bigger issue facing the Clinton camp -- namely, $8.7 million of reported debt in February. Clinton is being heavily outspent by rival Sen. Barack Obama.
