New Health Care Ad Hits Insurance Companies, Pressures Dem Senators
Yesterday’s big White House powwow on health care, where the insurance and medical lobby vowed to help rein in health care spending en route to reform, has aroused suspicions that these groups are positioning themselves to undermine from within the push for a public insurance option.
So the pro-reform group Health Care For America Now is already going up on the air in multiple states with this new spot that says the only way to weaken the insurance industry’s power is to give people the option of a public plan as an alternative to private insurance:
The ad is running in the states of nine Dem Senators who haven’t yet signed on to a public option (the above version targets Arlen Specter) and pressures them to get with that program.
The spot features a doctor strongly emphasizing that the public plan option will mean patients are no longer at the “mercy” of the insurance industry and will give patients the freedom to make health care choices in consultation with their doctors. It’s push-back against two anti-reform arguments — that reform will deny you choice and de-personalize your relationship with your doctor.
If nothing else, the ad is a sign that yesterday’s gathering was a kind of starting gun for the fight over whether to include a public option, which some see as the only route to real reform.
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The ad is too blah for me. Besides that there are no action words. Like I said last week our side needs to use the word freedom early and often in this debate. Freedom to choose your own doctor.
I like the moveon.org one. It has a couple insurance guys talking between themselves talking how they’ll be finished if public health care passes because they’ll be forced to compete with a public plan unlike now, where they can charge what they want.
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Anyways. I’m not so sure the associations are in there to sabotage things. I was thinking it went down something like this. Insurance, PhRMA, AMA and the other big ones have woken up to the reality the large Democratic majorities will have a much better chance of passing some sort of public plan and unless they get on the boat and work with the govn’t on how to lower costs and provide health care to all and remain profitable at the same time, they’ll be on the outside fighting the loosing cause.
mike
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But even in your second paragraph it seems like what you are saying is that the associations are there because they don’t want a public plan to pass (which is what I also believe) and if thats the case then doesn’t that pretty much make the case that they are there to sabotage the public plan no matter how they intend to do it?
Glad to see the ad but it’s not enough. What’s at stake here is real health care reform. The GOP is going to be hitting with socialism and the end of private systems, which is not true in the least bit. We need to be one step ahead of that. I thought we were actually until about two weeks ago.
I see no problems with private insurance, just as long as its a backup to a public health care plan. My ongoing annoyance with private insurance, either purchased as an individual or through a company plan, is the insurance company expects the insured to find a doctor and pay out of pocket for all services, then collect receipts, fill out specific forms, make copies for personal records and mail the package off. Then in about 6 to 8 weeks you receive a check and document explaining what percentage of services they refunded you. That takes a lot of discretionary income which limits my ability to get treatment for medical problems. So I have trouble with repuglicans claiming our current insurance system is good. It’s only good if you have enough financial resources to pay out of pocket and wait a month or two for a return based on deductibles depending on what they decide to cover.
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A pleasure to come to your site. Thnks very much!
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