Health insurance companies gave $86.2 million to the US Chamber of Commerce last year to oppose the health care reform bill, tax records show.

Companies such as UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Cigna Corp. funneled the money into the Chamber of Commerce’s anti-health reform campaign after Democrats began talk of increasing regulations on the insurance industry, Bloomberg reports.

The Chamber of Commerce used the $86.2 million to pay for advertisements, polling, and events to create opposition to the bill.

The funds were used to ‘advance a market-based health care system and advocate for fundamental reform that would improve access to quality care while lowering costs,’ the Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.

Health insurance companies tried to appear as if they supported health care reform while working to defeat in it private, according to the liberal blog ThinkProgress.

‘In public, health insurance lobbyists and executives promised to support reform and work closely with reform advocates,’ said Lee Fang. ‘In private, the health insurance industry worked with conservative think tanks and media, right-wing front groups, and highly ideological trade associations like the National Association of Manufacturers and the Chamber to kill the bill.’

Wendell Potter, the former vice president of corporate communications for Cigna Corp., told ThinkProgress […]