The 2016 elections have passed, but it’s still open season on political advertising for opponents and supporters of Obamacare.
As congressional Republicans work toward repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act — much to the chagrin of Democrats — advocacy groups are spending millions on Internet, television and radio ads pleading for why Congress should or should not ditch the 2010 healthcare law.
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| ‘This is one of those issues where, as time goes on, it gets better for us.’ |
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The heaviest spender so far is the American Action Network, which has poured $7.4 million into ads supporting the repeal efforts. The group, which is affiliated with House Speaker Paul Ryan, is running ads and sending out mailers in 41 House districts.
Some of the group’s ads seek to encourage the ongoing repeal efforts by GOP leaders, including Ryan and key committee chairmen, while others boost support for Republicans in moderate districts who are facing heavy pressure from constituents to keep the law.
The ads praise Republicans for putting forward an Obamacare replacement, a reference to a proposal Ryan released last summer, and promise viewers that a replacement measure will solve ongoing problems with Obamacare plans, including soaring premiums and deductibles.
“House Republicans have a plan to get there without disrupting existing coverage, giving your family the healthcare it deserves,” one ad says.
Another group, this one with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is running ads in battleground states with key Senate races in 2018. One Nation is spending $3 million for three weeks of radio, print and digital ads, which cast the law as a failure and praise the promised Republican alternative.
The strategy is to hurt Senate Democrats facing tough races, including Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and boost support for Republicans, including Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada.
“We’re paying more and getting less,” the ads say. “It’s time to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
The advocacy groups are spreading their message at a time when more Americans than ever before want to keep Obamacare on the books. While the country has mostly been evenly split over the healthcare law since it passed, recent polls have indicated an uptick in support.
Fifty-four percent of respondents to a February Kaiser Family Foundation poll said they approve of the healthcare law, while 43 percent disapprove, the poll’s highest-recorded level of support for the law. One in four adults want Republican leaders to modify the law, while 17 percent want them to get rid of it altogether.
While opponents of the law are spending more heavily on ads, Democrats and supporters of the law are seeking to capitalize on the growing support for keeping the law or at least parts of it.
The Alliance for Healthcare Security, a coalition of groups including leading Obamacare advocate Families USA, is spending $5 million on ads in six states and the District of Columbia targeting moderate Republican senators.
“This is one of those issues where, as time goes on, it gets better for us,” Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said recently.
Ads about Obamacare repeal aren’t centered on just the healthcare law, but also an accompanying measure to block Planned Parenthood from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursements.
House Republicans are putting language in their bill that says any health provider that performs abortions may not get paid by the Medicaid program. Medicaid dollars already can’t be used to pay for abortion procedures, but conservatives want to completely block the taxpayer dollars from any healthcare clinic that offers abortions.
Lawmakers are mostly split down partisan lines on the issue, but a handful of Republican senators, including Collins and Murkowski, have indicated they don’t want to defund Planned Parenthood.
The women’s healthcare provider is downplaying its abortion services with ads featuring women telling stories of how they were encouraged not to get an abortion but instead carry their pregnancies to full term. And abortion opponents are pressuring some of the more moderate Democratic senators on the issue.
Leading anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List has run radio ads pressing moderate Senate Democrats Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Donnelly to support an Obamacare repeal bill that defunds Planned Parenthood.
And last month, the group launched a $500,000 campaign in D.C. and key states to pressure Congress to prioritize defunding Planned Parenthood. The campaign includes 30-second ads airing during Fox News and MSNBC’s morning shows that slam the women’s health and abortion provider for now providing prenatal services.
“The American people elected a president and Congress committed to stopping taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion businesses,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “We urge Congress to continue working towards this goal.”
