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

Coin: Democrats Press Health Care In Ads

Well, well, well. While I was writing yesterday's post, the Obama camp was delivering the second part of a one-two punch comprised of advertisements focused on health care. We saw the first one in my last post; now the Dems have aired another ad entitled "Coin."

Martina Stewart, an associate producer for CNN's Political Ticker blog, has a great resource addressing the divergent positions taken by the candidates. Her Political Ticker post made on October 5 not only give a synopsis of the commercial along with a video link, but also includes some great responses and rebuttals from each camp.

On Sunday, the [Obama] campaign also held a conference call about health care reform policy that featured Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who was the Kansas Insurance Commissioner prior to becoming governor, and the Pennsylvania and Ohio insurance commissioners. The call focused on criticizing Sen. McCain’s health care reform proposal.

The day before, the McCain campaign held a conference call of its own where it sought to refute the Obama campaign’s assertions about the McCain health care reform plan and, at a campaign event in Virginia, Obama called McCain’s plan “radical.”

The audiocasts of these two conference calls add a much needed additional dimension to the issues presented in the advertisement. Links to them are near the bottom of the Political Ticker post cited at the bottom of this entry.

The chaos of these recent months has included its own health care aspects in each of the major issues. In the wake of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, we saw firsthand, palpable proof of the importance of electronic medical records. As Wall Street melts down and the Dow plummets, the impact of health care costs on our economy is massive. During the Presidential race, it is once more rising to the surface.

We may see health care moving back towards its proper position as a centerpiece issue for the next President.

SOURCE: "Obama camp releases another health care ad" 10/05/08
photo courtesy of KevinDooley, used under its Creative Commons license

Health Care Returning to the Presidential Race?

As the pundits rail about the race for the Oval Office and the newscasts are filled with baleful economic predictions, the American public continues to find health care reform of utmost importance. Unfortunately, the topic seems to have drifted out of the media coverage zone, eclipsed by political spots and visions of a failing Wall Street. This is especially a shame considering many have tied the ills of the health care industry directly to the economic hardships we are now facing. (See last Thursday's blog post for Elizabeth Edwards' take on the subject.)

Now that the first two debates -- Presidential and Vice Presidential -- are passed, it would seem that this vitally important topic may be returning to the spotlight it so richly deserves. Sen. Obama has brought out a new ad which brings the subject to center stage, evidently sensing a weakness on the subject in his competitors. Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor at Boston.com, has posted the video...



This is heartening to see since it was not that long ago that I wrote an entry here entitled "Health Care Falls Off the Radar".

SOURCE: "Obama sees opening on healthcare" 10/03/08
photo courtesy of Chesi Photos CC, used under their Creative Commons license

Union vs. McCain: Round Two

My last post on this blog talked about the recently launched ad campaign levied against Sen. McCain by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). In that post we looked at an example of the YouTube ad and I offered ruminations on the way that the union is leveraging old and new media to get the word out.

Today lets take a look at what the Annenberg Political Fact Check has to say about the content of those ads. (I really hope these guys pay a lot of attention to health care during the upcoming six months. Their objective analysis of the facts behind the spin is usually indispensable.) Here is one small excerpt from their extensively documented breakdown:

The AFL-CIO, in documentation it provided to FactCheck.org, cites four specific votes as support for this allegation. Three of them were against Democratic amendments to the annual budget bill in 2004, 2005 and 2006. And all of them failed along party lines in a Republican-controlled Senate. But in each case, McCain later supported different amendments to increase veterans' health benefits, either on the same day or the following day.

Specifically, in 2004 McCain voted against an increase of $1.8 billion, but an increase of $1.2 billion passed by unanimous consent. In 2005 he voted against an increase of $2.8 billion, then voted for a $410 million increase. And in 2006, he voted against a $1.5 billion increase, then voted for an $823 million increase.

In the increasingly complex flurry of opinion, fact, spin, and rhetoric that surrounds this issue it is more vital than ever to dig down to the roots of any claims made. This is true for both the views you support and the ones that you disagree with.

Think of it like electronic medical records vs. the current system. In the current system the details of a patients health issues can be fragmented across several different hard copy filing systems, each offering only an incomplete picture of the case. The confusion and possibility for mis-diagnosis is high, just as it is when bombarded by the (often ad hominem) arguments and spin surrounding the debate. Just as electronic medical records, once implemented, will allow reconciliation of data from disparate sources and act as a preventative against mistaken assessment of the situation, use of fact checking resources like the Annenberg Political Fact Check can help you reconcile the claims with the realities as the national discussion continues.

SOURCE: "AFL-CIO Falsely Attacks McCain" 07/10/08
photo courtesy of World Economic Forum, used under its Creative Commons license

California Nurses Use Obama's Words Against Schwarzenegger Plan

This morning The Nation brings us some interesting news (via Yahoo). Evidently while U.S. Senator Barack Obama is focusing his attentions on other states, his voice is ringing out across California thanks to an ad campaign run by the California Nurses Association (CNA). The ads attack the health care reform plan backed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, and a group of major insurance corporations.

The radio ads being aired by CNA announce that, "The nurses of California agree with Senator Barack Obama: the government shouldn't punish people who can't afford health insurance."

Then an audio clip from Obama is heard. "I know that there have been some folks who said that it's not possible to provide universal health care coverage unless there's a mandate," says the senator. "Their essential argument is the only way to get everybody covered is if the government forces you to buy health insurance. If you don't buy it, then you'll be penalized in some way. And the reason people don't have health insurance is because they can't afford it."

You may read a transcript of the ad or listen to/download it in MP3 format from the CNA Online Press Release.

The CNA has not gone easy on Senator Obama's plan in the past. Last year the organization's then president, Deborah Berger, RN, criticized it for failing to address pricing practices in the health care industry. She said that those practices, "put so many American families at financial and health risk."

Then there is Iowa. During the recent caucuses the CNA ran an ad aimed at Senator Obama which said: "It's not good enough just to be better than the Republicans on this."

The current ad campaign has potential to be a very powerful one. Senator Obama's voice and face have become ubiquitous, especially after his victory in the Iowa caucuses. The CNA, as we wrote about here, was the group behind the last month's powerful "if he were anyone else, he'd be dead by now," ad campaign that used U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney's recent medical history as it's basis.

It will be interesting to see what direction things take in response, especially between now and the California presidential primary on February 5.

SOURCE: " Putting Obama to Work for Health-Care Reform" 01/11/08
SOURCE: "Nurses Unveil New Advertising Campaign Against Schwarzenegger-Nunez “Individual Mandate” Plan" 01/10/08
photo courtesy of Transplanted Mountaineer, used under this Creative Commons license