A rather tame campaign ad in which gubernatorial candidate Martin O?Malley talks about expanding health insurance coverage and lowering costs has drawn a sharp attack from state Republican Chairman John Kane, lambastingO?Malley?s “terrible record on health care.”
In the television commercial, O?Malley says: “Working families know that siding with the big insurance companies is not the way to control health-care costs. I say it?s a governor?s job to put working families and seniors before profits.”
He goes on: “That?s why I have a detailed plan to expand coverage for small businesses, make medicine more affordable, improve quality and help lower costs. Because strengthening middle-class families starts with health care we can afford.”
Democrat O?Malley only hints at what he has said repeatedly on the campaign trail: Incumbent Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich sides with insurance companies and drug companies over average citizens.
In an e-mail attack, Kane said O?Malley “raised the cost of health care for city employees; homelessness and drug addiction have risen sharply in the city; Baltimore was ranked No. 5 in the nation for new AIDS diagnoses; and the percent of those uninsured in the city is almost two times more than statewide uninsured persons.”
O?Malley Campaign Communications Director Hari Sevugan found Kane?s critique a bit off-the-wall, noting that O?Malley had “doubled drug treatment funding in the city.”
This has produced a 10-year low in the number of drug overdose deaths and the nation?s “second-largest decline in drug-related emergency room admissions.”
O?Malley also launched a prescription drug discount card, increased funding for community health centers and fought for the Wal-Mart law to force large corporations to expand health benefits.
