AHIP Million-Dollar Ad Campaign Targets Seniors

In a late-effort push to alter or torpedo health care reform, the major lobby for private insurers has made a multi-state, million-dollar ad purchase claiming that seniors will see their care cut under Democrat-crafted legislation.

America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), which released a highly critical (and widely criticized) report slamming the Senate Finance Committee's reform proposal, has quietly put out a new spot claiming that millions of seniors will see their Medicare slashed by Congress.

"Is it right to ask 10 million seniors on Medicare advantage for more than their fair share?" the ad asks. "Congress is proposing over 100 billion in cuts to Medicare advantage. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says many seniors will see cuts in benefits."

The spot, according to a Democratic ad tracker is running in a variety of states, including Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, Missouri, Louisiana and Nevada. The money behind it is impressive. Slightly more than $1 million has been spent for it to air during a ten-day period beginning this past Monday (that total doesn't include expenditures in Pennsylvania, which the tracker didn't have readily available).

That the private insurance industry would make such a splash so late in the health care debate is a reflection of just how hotly contested the process has become as it enters the critical voting stage.

"It is potentially a very big wallet. It is going to add a lot more horsepower to their complaints," said Evan Tracey, founder and president of Campaign Media Analysis Group. "What is more interesting about this is, does it foretell something? Obviously they have access to capital and their industry will be the most impacted. But by and large they have stayed out of the debate [to this point]... This is the first industry marker they put down and the ad they put down today is all about Medicare advantage. These are the things that suggest they will be a big player down the stretch."

Indeed, as noteworthy as AHIP's newest ad, the fact that it took them this long to lash out against reform is equally remarkable. Since the beginning of the year, Tracey says, $125 million has been spent by roughly 80 different groups on health-care-related ads. AHIP, however, has "largely kept their powder dry" even as $23 million worth of ads critical of the industry have run.

"They have a pretty big message gulf to fill," Tracey said. "They were in that category of general health care stuff. The only thing they had in their early stuff was the need for bipartisan reform."

The targets of the current ad purchase seem relatively clear. Putting up a spot in Nevada is likely meant to pressure Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) before he merges the two pieces of legislation that have made their way through the Senate. The spots in Colorado are likely intended to impact freshmen Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, while the Louisiana purchase is almost certainly geared towards centrist Democrat Mary Landrieu. Spending money in Missouri is something of a mystery, as progressives insist that Sen. Claire McCaskill, (D-MO) will be a reliable vote.

A call to AHIP's press office was not returned.

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Comments

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[DeanOR]

12:34 PM on 10/14/2009

Obama and Democrats are partly responsible for fear among seniors and the disabled because they have casually talked about "cutting Medicare costs", seemingly without any awareness that such talk sets off alarm bells for people who don't have any other means of getting health care. Of course insurance companies and conservatives are beating this drum. It was totally predictable. But Democrats set themselves up for this.

[beerguy]

08:26 AM on 10/14/2009

President Obama probably had made some kind of promise to the health insurance industry and than broke that promise. Now they are lining up against him. You reap what you sow O

[bobh]

04:58 AM on 10/14/2009

The Medicare Advantage plans are corporate welfare given to them by the Republicans as a campaign contribution payoff. Of course they want to keep it. What is really low-down is that they have waited until the very end to run these ads.

[ilse]

03:35 AM on 10/14/2009

And this is why the insurance companies are much too powerful and exactly why they need competition. Again, they are using scare tactics to scare the heck out of senior citizens. How sad is that? All this time they have had their bought and paid for republicans and blue dog democrats doing their dirty work and now they realize that it's not being stopped like it was when Clinton was in office. Scaring elderly people, I find that repulsive. Sarah Palin did the same thing with her Death Panel lies. They have absolutely no respect for the elderly.

[crzy]

01:28 AM on 10/14/2009

"Wake up Wilfred (Brimley), insurance needs you for a few more advertisements..."

[Tim303]

01:24 AM on 10/14/2009

Too late, lads. You just got schooled by our poker faced President.

[babyboomerorig]

11:02 PM on 10/13/2009

Medicare Advantage is a hoax to begin with.

"We pay SOME of the costs not covered by Medicare". SOME?!?! For what you want for that Medicare Advantage Plan, it's more affordable to make payments to hospitals, ambulance services, emergency rooms and whatever else they throw at you.

Medicare covers at least 80% and most hospitals write off another 10%...and the Advantage Plans cost more than that 10-15% we pay to hospitals.

The government sends more to the insurance companies for the Advantage Plan than it will ever pay out. It's a waste and more seniors need to realize it.

[msgirlintn]

05:39 AM on 10/14/2009

And Bill Frist was bragging on Morning Meeting that he had bi-partisan support to pass it. He doesn't tel that it wasn't paid for, which ironically is one of the Republican talking points on this reform. They never paid for anything, tax cuts, wars, Medicare Advantage, nope didn't pay for it. But now the Dems are committng generational theft by trying to pass healthcare and pay for it.

Of course Frist has a stake in supporting healthcare. His family owns HCA Healthcare, the nation's largest for-profit healthcare company.

[Rmath]

07:19 PM on 10/13/2009

Corporate slime misconduct is out of control.

[Phxflyer]

06:31 PM on 10/13/2009

AHIP has lost all crediblity. They should save their money.

[Talmageb]

05:31 PM on 10/13/2009

We are living under the thumb of corporate elitism.
Real wages for the average American continue to stagnate and/or drop.
Fully thirteen percent of Americans live under the federal poverty line, including more than fourteen million children. (the federal poverty line is purposefully kept artificially low.)
forty seven million Americans have NO health insurance.
The richest one percent of Americans own more than the bottom ninety percent of Americans.
The top 0.01 percent of earners in the US are now taking home six percent of all the income, higher than the 1920s peak of five percent, and a whopping six-fold increase since the start of the Reagan administration.

The point of this is corporations are doing what they always do. Concentrating and controlling wealth into as few hands as possible. This is why we have anti-trust laws. This is why there is a government to regulate corporations and insure that there is competition. This is why we are supposed to have laws to protect workers. This is why we need publicly funded elections. Campaign finance reform. We are currently living in a corporate controlled country and the outcome for the people will ultimately be slavery. There is no major issue in the United States that cannot be traced to out of control corporations and/or corrupt and dishonest politicians. We need some serious changes to curb this. I am fearful that it is too late.

[terribyte]

06:36 PM on 10/13/2009

Agreed, and fanned.
Without dealing with Campaign Finance Reform, everything congress does is going to be tainted with corporate greed.
There needs to be an overhaul of the system, a surgical removal of not just the corruption, but the cause of corruption.

[thepoliticalcat]

07:04 PM on 10/13/2009

Hasn't the Supreme Court already decided that our corrupt politicians may continue to stay on the corporate dole and sell out our interests eternally?

[cruisepuppy7452a]

05:21 PM on 10/13/2009

Let me say this again, supplimental coverage is a scam. Its only purpose is to use bully tactics on the elderly to pay more for healthcare. It does not guarantee your docs or hospitals will run the needed tests, operations, or abide by any of the laws on record. Nada. SCAM. I dont let these bastards talk to my family, I tell them its illegal to call people on the no call lists and get thier info off caller id. I then report them for violating that law. They are calling cell phones as well. its illegal and has to be stopped. Tell them all to go to hell. You pay into medicare, have it taken out of your paycheck, make them use that to cover you. Only fools sign up for supplimental. Dont' fall for it.

[cruisepuppy7452a]

05:15 PM on 10/13/2009

To any elderly reading this post, tell the insurance companies to go to hell. They are lying to your faces, won't cover you, will slap a DNR on you or tell your family COMFORT Measures are the way to go. Word to the wise, I find these ads that use scare tactics beyond the pale, horriffic and illegal. They know better. NOBODY has a right to play god with your health or care. NOBODY, not the dems and not the republicans. YOU control your body and your healthcare. Period. Don't let docs tell you sorry, we can't cover that unless you get supplimental. BS. They have to if you have Medicare. Its the law. Folks, don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of these insurance companies and big business making money off the elderly, your parents and mine. TIRED of it. UNTIL we say NO to all of the so called healthcare plans, tell them only Single Payer will do, nothing will change. I am not longer a dem, will never be a republican, I am an independant, and thier worst nightmare. Make them work for us for a change.

[larmarch5]

05:11 PM on 10/13/2009

I assume Faux Gnus will run these ads for free.

[michiganms]

05:09 PM on 10/13/2009

Why doesn't the health care industry take the money that the put on propaganda ads and pay people's claims? wouldn't that make more sense? Oh yeah, some CEOs might have to take a pay cut.