WASHINGTON - The so-called Gang of Six, including North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad, have all received above-average donations from the health-care world.

Conrad has received $1.6 million in health contributions since 1989, 35th among lawmakers, while Sen. Max Baucus, a leader in the troubled effort in Congress to write a health care overhaul bill, has received more campaign donations from the health industry than any elected federal official except President Barack Obama and three other senators.

In a Wednesday statement, Conrad spokesman Sean Neary said, "next to agriculture, health care is the biggest employer in the state. So it's understandable that the Senator has received the support of doctors, nurses, hospitals, and nursing homes over his 23-year career in the Senate."

Baucus, D-Mont., has received some $3.9 million in contributions from the health care industry since 1989 - principally because of his place as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The panel is at the center of this year's health care debate, and on Wednesday Baucus released his view of how the medical system should be reshaped: an $856 billion, 10-year package of changes.

Among the Gang of Six, the senators have raised $10.7 million since 1989 from the industries and people with the most at stake financially in the overhaul effort. That's an average of nearly $1.8 million apiece over that period, more than triple the roughly $560,000 average for all other senators and representatives.

Corporate and individual contributions from the health sector to current officeholders have totaled $328 million over the past two decades. The leaders are Obama, with $20 million, mostly during his presidential run last year, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, his GOP opponent, with $9 million.

Health insurers alone have donated at least $42 million to lawmakers, including nearly $2 million to the six senators working on the health legislation.

Besides Obama and McCain, only Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Arlen Specter, D-Pa., have received more health contributions than Baucus, $8.3 million and $4.5 million, respectively.