A Medtronic spokesperson told CMD that Medtronic did not renew its ALEC membership in October 2010. Medtronic [3] is the world's largest medical technology company, specializing in biomedical devices that get implanted in the body. It had almost $15 billion in sales in 2011 [4].

ALEC documents obtained and released by Common Cause list three Medtronic representatives on ALEC's Health and Human Services Task Force [5] as of June [6] and March 2011 [7], as well as in October 2010 [8]. In October 2011, Medtronic posted a job opening [9] for a Government Affairs Director that would "participate in and support corporate SGA efforts with select national bodies of state legislators, including ALEC" (emphasis added).

Information about Medtronic's membership in ALEC was first published [10] by MinnPost in April, and was subsequently updated regarding Medtronic's stated non-renewal.

For more on ALEC's agenda with regard to healthcare and insurance, see CMD health fellow Wendell Potter's articles in The Nation [11] and here on PRWatch [12].