WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Three U.S. judges hearing court challenges to the Obama administration's healthcare overhaul own healthcare-industry stocks, a government watchdog group says.
U.S. District Judges Gladys Kessler, Michael Schneider and Keith Starrett had holdings in funds that invested in companies such as insurance giant UnitedHealth Group Inc., or owned direct shares in companies such as medical-equipment makers Covidien PLC and Medtronic Inc., the Center for Public Integrity said.
The non-partisan center said it based on its analysis on financial-disclosure statements filed by the judges in 2009 and 2010.
Kessler, nominated to the District of Columbia district court by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, owns as much as $250,000 of shares in Vanguard Health Care Fund, which lists UnitedHealth Group as its sixth-largest holding, and received dividends of less than $1,000 from stock in Covidien, the center said.
Kessler is hearing a case challenging the healthcare law's constitutionality on religious grounds.
Schneider, nominated to the Tyler, Texas, district court by former President George W. Bush, owned less than $15,000 in Covidien stock in a 2008 disclosure form filed in 2009, the center said. He is hearing a lawsuit claiming the law discriminates against physician-owned hospitals and violates the U.S. Constitution.
Starrett, also nominated by Bush, owns shares in Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, or LabCorp, a provider of blood and other medical tests, the center said. He is hearing a lawsuit in Hattiesburg, Miss., alleging the healthcare law's mandate to buy insurance is unconstitutional.
The judges had no immediate comment.
