A Thought on Health Care Spending

As is needed in these troubled times, President-Elect Barack Obama is marshaling his forces for January 20 when he is is sworn into office. As that time approaches, it will be interesting -- as it is with any new resident of the Oval Office -- to see what elements of his health care platform will make it into actuality.

Our President-Elect certainly has an awareness not only of the importance of health care issues, but also an awareness of how important it is to his constituency. This is demonstrated by the amount of ad spending his campaign engaged in that addressed health care issues.

Via Jacob Goldstein on the Wall Street Journal (Oct 25, '08):

Barack Obama is going big on health-care advertising. He’s spent $113 million — 68% of his total TV ad budget — on commercials that include a health-care theme. Only 13% of John McCain’s TV ad spending has gone for health-related commercials.

By spending more than half his ad budget into health care, the Obama has created expectations that he will have to follow through upon. I predict we will be hearing a lot more about electronic health records soon!

SOURCE: "Obama Has Spent $113 Million on Health-Themed Ads" 10/24/08
photo courtesy of iChaz, used under its Creative Commons license