[big campaign] MoveOn Civic Action's new health care ad

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folks, In honor of the President's meeting with Baucus and Grassley, we've released a fun ad promoting the public health insurance plan. Release below. Ilyse MoveOn.org Civic Action *FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* *CONTACT:* Emma Mackinnon 202-302-6920 Wednesday, May 6, 2009 Doug Gordon 202-822-5200 ext 211 **** View TV Ad Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms2b57MLqZs **** *New Ad Campaign: Health Care Reform Must Include * *Choice of a Public Health Insurance Plan* * * *Ad to Run In Home States of* *Chair and Ranking Republican of Senate Finance Committee* * * Follows a 10,000 Person Online Town Hall Meeting Monday Night with Dr. Howard Dean and MoveOn.org Political Action A new 30 second television ad, running in Iowa, Montana and Washington, DC, uses humor to highlight the importance of including the choice of a public health insurance plan in any health care reform legislation. The ad, by MoveOn.org Civic Action, follows an online town hall meeting on the subject Monday night that over 10,000 people participated in – the highest attendance ever recorded by sister organization Moveon.org Political Action for an issue briefing. The ads will run in the home states of the chair and the ranking Republican of the Senate Finance Committee, as well as in Washington, DC, for one week. The public health insurance option has been vigorously opposed by the insurance industry and their allies in Congress. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) has recently shown a willingness to support the public health insurance option, while Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) remains dead set against it, despite the fact that a recent poll showed that 56% of Iowans want a public health insurance option.[1]<#121168483919465d_12116819730eee3d__ftn1>The Iowa results mirror polls that show most Americans believe the choice of a public health insurance plan is key to solving our health care crisis. The television ad, set in a funeral home, uses humor and shows two funeral directors discussing how President Obama’s health care reform proposal, with its inclusion of the choice of a pubic health insurance plan, will lower people’s health care costs and let them live longer, therefore putting the funeral directors out of business. “While our ad uses humor to elevate the importance of the public health insurance option, the point couldn't be more serious,” said Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn. “Senators Baucus and Grassley are at the center of the fight for real health care reform. They have a responsibility to stand with the overwhelming majority of Americans who want the choice of a public health insurance plan – but instead, Senator Grassley and Congressional Republicans have been standing with the insurance companies and special interests.” The ad campaign follows Monday night’s online town hall meeting on the subject. The town hall was hosted jointly by MoveOn.org Political Action and Democracy for America. The town hall, which over 20,000 people attended, was featured Governor Howard Dean explaining the public health insurance option and taking questions from the on line crowd. You can hear the town hall at: http://pol.moveon.org/deanforum/recording.html The ad is viewable online here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms2b57MLqZs * * *** *“Out of Business,” MoveOn.org, May 6, 2009* *AD TEXT:* UNDERTAKER #1: If Obama’s public health insurance option passes, it will be a disaster for us. UNDERTAKER #2: It will be terrible. UNDERTAKER #1: I know, right? A cheap, affordable plan like that? It’s just gonna force insurance companies to lower their rates, to compete. UNDERTAKER #2: A public health care plan means affordable health care for everyone. And you know what that means. UNDERTAKER #1: More healthy people living longer. UNDERTAKER #2: This guy’s killing us. UNDERTAKER #1: I know. ON-SCREEN: Support Obama’s Public Health Care Option UNDERTAKER #2: How’s a guy supposed to make a living? VOICEOVER: Paid for by MoveOn.org Civic Action. *DOCUMENTATION:* * * Obama’s health care proposal currently includes the choice of a public health insurance plan. His proposal includes a provision to “Establish a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/health_care/ A public health insurance option forces private companies to compete, ultimately reducing costs for consumers. See for example the Urban Institute’s study “Can a Public Health Plan Increase Competition and Lower the Costs of Health Reform?,” 10/3/08, available at http://www.urban.org/publications/411762.html. An expanded public plan would have improved bargaining power, allowing it to reduce costs without reducing quality. When costs to consumers do rise, the increase would be smaller than that of private plans. This lowers costs for the consumer, forcing private plans to compete by cutting their own profits. [See “The Case for Public Plan Choice in National Health Reform,” by Jacob S. Hacker, PhD, published by Berkeley School of Law and the Institute for America’s Future, http://institute.ourfuture.org/files/Jacob_Hacker_Public_Plan_Choice.pdf , and “Cost Impact Analysis for the ‘Health Care for America’ Proposal,” Lewin Group, February 2008, http://www.sharedprosperity.org/hcfa/lewin.pdf.] Jacob Hacker summarized what a public health insurance option would mean for premiums and costs in a Q&A with the American Prospect’s Ezra Klein: “The public health insurance plan’s premiums would be about 23 percent lower than comparable private insurance for the same set of benefits for the same population. These savings are principally due to the two unique features of a public plan: its simplified administrative structure, and its ability to bargain for better rates.” [Prospect.org, March 3, 2009, http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=03&year=2009&base_name=jacob_hacker_respondsto_you ] High costs are the key factor in keeping the uninsured from purchasing insurance and keeping the insured from accessing needed services. Nearly 40% of US adults overall report skipping key medical services because of cost. “Affordability Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey found that of 58 million adults under age 65 who sought coverage in the individual insurance market over a three year period, nine of 10 did not purchase coverage ….More than half of the underinsured (53%) and two-thirds of the uninsured (68%) went without needed care including not seeing a doctor when sick, not filling prescriptions, and not following up on recommended tests or treatment. Only 31 percent of adequately insured adults went without such care…Almost 40 percent of U.S. adults report one of three access problems because of costs: not getting needed care because of cost of a doctor’s visit, skipping medical test, treatment, or follow-up because of costs, or not filling prescription or skipping doses because of cost.” [“Public Programs: Critical Building Blocks in Health Reform,” Testimony of Karen Davis, President of the Commonwealth Fund, before the Senate Finance Committee, June 16, 2008, available at http://finance.senate.gov/healthsummit2008/Statements/Karen%20Davis%20Testimony.pdf] Lower quality and less access to health services causes unnecessary deaths every year in the US. But those who currently have access to a public health insurance option have higher chances of living longer. “In a recent report (“U.S. Health System Performance: A National Scorecard” (Schoen et al., *Health Affairs*, web exclusive, 2006)), the United States comes up short on key health indicators, including ‘deaths before age seventy-five from conditions that are at least partially preventable or modifiable with timely and effective health care. The United States ranked fifteenth out of nineteen countries on this indicator as of 1998….The United States ranked last on infant mortality out of twenty-three industrialized countries as of 2002.’ In 2002, the Institute of Medicine estimated that lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths each year among working-age adults in the United States. (*Care Without* *Coverage: Too Little, Too Late*, Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press). However, according to *OECD Health Data 2006*, the United States is slightly above the OECD average when it comes to life expectancy at age 65—which may reflect in part the universal, guaranteed coverage provided by Medicare to America’s elderly.” [Economic Policy Institute, “Health Care for America,” by Jacob S. Hacker, 1/11/07, available at http://www.sharedprosperity.org/bp180/bp180.pdf ] If health coverage in the US were on par with other top nations, 101,000 lives could be saved each year. “Yet, on key health outcome measures the U.S. fares average or worse. For example, on mortality from conditions ‘amenable to health care’—a measure of death rates before age 75 from diseases and conditions that are preventable or treatable with timely, effective medical care—the U.S. ranked 19th out of 19 countries, with a death rate 30 percent higher than France, Japan, and Australia. If the U.S. performance were comparable to the best three countries, it could save 101,000 lives a year.” [“Public Programs,” Testimony of Karen Davis, President of the Commonwealth Fund, before the Senate Finance Committee, June 16, 2008] A public health insurance option would offer quality care with a broad choice of doctors. “Public insurance has a better track record than private insurance while providing inclusive, stable coverage with broad choice of providers. Our nation’s largest public insurance plan, Medicare, has greatly improved its cost-control record over the last generation, and like other programs of public insurance, it has done so with low administrative costs while offering wide choice of medical providers.” [See “The Case for Public Plan Choice in National Health Reform,” by Jacob S. Hacker, PhD, published by Berkeley School of Law and the Institute for America’s Future, http://institute.ourfuture.org/files/Jacob_Hacker_Public_Plan_Choice.pdf] Obama’s public health insurance option would be a guaranteed backup for Americans. Consumers could never be cut from the plan, and it will always be affordable. “To quote the Obama campaign release on the proposal…No American will be turned away from any insurance plan because of illness or pre-existing conditions…Individuals and families who do not qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP but still need assistance will receive income-related federal subsidies to keep health insurance premiums affordable.” [See “The Case for Public Plan Choice in National Health Reform,” by Jacob S. Hacker, PhD, published by Berkeley School of Law and the Institute for America’s Future, http://institute.ourfuture.org/files/Jacob_Hacker_Public_Plan_Choice.pdf] * * *###* * * * * ------------------------------ [1] <#121168483919465d_12116819730eee3d__ftnref1> See http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090503/LIFE02/905030349/1001/NEWS -- Ilyse G. Hogue Communications Director MoveOn.org ph: 202-822-4780 x219 mobile: 202-731-2656 Hope is a feeling that life and work have meaning. You either have it or you don't, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you. ----Vaclav Havel --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "big campaign" group. To post to this group, send to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] E-mail [email protected] with questions or concerns This is a list of individuals. 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