KHN: Kaiser Health News

They aren’t campaign ads, but two new television commercials from the Obama administration that promote the president’s health law may also be boosting its image.

The ads, which began airing this summer, tout the law’s preventive services benefits, including coverage of vaccinations, mammograms and other screenings. For many people, these services will now be available through their health insurance without a co-pay or out-of-pocket costs.

“Right now, millions of Americans are using their preventive benefits from the health care law. You can, too,” says one of the ads’ voiceovers.

Asked about the campaign, a Department of Health and Human Services official noted that the health law itself called for an “education and outreach campaign.” Section 4004 says that, along with explaining the new preventive benefits, the campaign should describe “the importance of utilizing preventive services to promote wellness, reduce health disparities, and mitigate chronic disease.”

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The 60 Plus Association, a conservative-leaning advocacy group focused on issues for seniors, began running new television spots this week targeting five incumbent Democratic senators for their support of the Medicare provisions in the 2010 health law.

60 Plus, which backs the premium support proposal for Medicare authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is spending $3.5 million to run the ads on both cable and broadcast in five states over the next two weeks. Ryan, who heads the House Budget Committee, proposed a plan that kept the same $500 billion level of cuts to Medicare (over 10 years) that the health law contains.

Each version of the ad, which features 77-year-old crooner Pat Boone, asks seniors to call one of five senators —  Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Jon Tester, D-Mont. — to express opposition to health law provisions like the Independent Payment Advisory Board.  All five senators are up for re-election this fall.

This story comes from our partner ‘s Shots blog.

The latest abortion battle doesn’t pit people on opposite sides of the issue against each other. Rather, it features two of the leading GOP candidates for president, each charging that the other is less than pure as the race heads to socially conservative South Carolina.

Both former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (well, a “superPAC” run by former Romney aides) now have ads attacking each other’s abortion failings.

The anti-Gingrich ad, sponsored by the group Restore Our Future, notes that “as speaker, Gingrich even supported taxpayer funding of some abortions.”

And the ad the Gingrich campaign is now running against Romney takes aim at some of the latter’s actions while he was governor.

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The AFSCME and SEIU trade unions, along with the liberal advocacy group Americans United for Change, are warning Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass. and Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., that votes in favor of Medicare and Medicaid budget cuts will be unpopular with seniors.

The groups launched ads today featuring the voice of  a woman who sounds as though she’s old enough to be eligible for Medicare.  The script of each version is the same, with only the name of the targeted member of Congress changing.  Heller and Brown are seeking reelection, and Rehberg is running for the Senate against Democratic incumbent Jon Tester.

The ad targeting Sen. Brown, embedded below, is running only in the Boston market, and only on cable television.  The Heller ad is running on broadcast stations in Reno, and the Rehberg ad is running on broadcast stations in Billings and Missoula.  All three spots will run through the end of this week.

A transcript follows:

If you vote to cut Medicare, Sen. Brown, I will remember it every time I visit my doctor. I’ll remember you cut Medicare and Medicaid every time I fill a prescription. I’ll remember you cut Medicare if I fall or get hurt. I’ll remember you chose protecting millionaires over protecting my health. My friends will remember it too –- all of them. Call Senator Heller. Tell him to protect Medicare and Medicaid.

Keep an eye out during the evening news, or even your favorite show on Lifetime, because the American Medical Association is taking to primetime news and cable to fight Medicare physician payment cuts.

Doctors face a 29.5 percent payment cut Jan. 1 if Congress doesn’t intervene. The AMA ran ads explicitly against the cut in a campaign that ended last week, but now the group is running a different, much-less-direct campaign through Nov. 20. The currently running ad focuses on the “essential partnership between patients and their doctors.”

“The ads reflect the reality that while AMA advocacy addresses issues like Medicare cuts specifically, our overall objective is more global: protecting the essential partnership between patients and their physicians,” AMA President Peter Carmel wrote in an email.

The spot will air on “60 Minutes,” Sunday news programs and national nightly news, as well as during both daytime and primetime shows on cable channels like CNN, Lifetime and Hallmark.

Here’s a transcript:

From an ear ache, to the flu; an accident, to asthma; a new heartbeat, to a heart condition: When you see your doctor, you don’t face any medical issue alone — you do it together. At the American Medical Association, we’re committed to preserving that essential partnership between patients and their doctors, because when it comes to your health, you need someone you trust. The AMA — protecting the relationship between patients and physicians.

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While some organizations are turning to social media to get their message out about possible Medicare and Medicaid cuts, others are relying on old-fashioned paid media on television and radio.  AARP and the Iowa Hospital Association are among the first on the air with messages for Congress and the super committee.

AARP

AARP’s ad focuses on possible cuts to Medicare and Social Security.  The organization says the spot is running nationally, mostly on broacast networks, but also some cable lifestyle channels.  It began airing Oct. 12, and its launch was tied to a “lobby day” in which nearly 500 AARP members and volunteers visited with members on Capitol Hill.

Here is a transcript of the ad:

I’m not a number.  I’m not a line item on a budget. And I’m definitely not a pushover. But I am a voter. So, Washington, before you even think about cutting my Medicare and Social Security benefits, here’s a number you should remember:  50 million. We are 50 million seniors who earned our benefits.  And you will be hearing from us.  Today and on election day.

Iowa Hospital Association

The Iowa Hospital Association is on the air statewide, with ads running on broadcast and cable stations, plus similar ads running on radio. These spots began running Oct. 3 and focus on the possible employment impact of cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in the Hawkeye State.

Here is a transcript of the television ad:

The pressure is on to reduce the federal budget deficit. But at what cost? Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid could cost Iowa hospital jobs. These jobs pay well and attract young families. And for every hospital job added, another job is created elsewhere. Hospitals put $6 billion jobs into the Iowa economy, and more than 137,000 Iowans are working because of hospitals. Tell your congressman cuts to Medicaid or Medicare are unacceptable. We can’t defeat the deficit by destroying good jobs.

keisenhower@kff.org

As Congress and the White House continue to struggle over reducing the deficit, a coalition of hospitals and hospital associations launched a second broadcast commercial warning lawmakers not to target them.

The Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care is spending $1 million this week on a broadcast campaign that asks Congress to leave hospitals out of any plans for cutting federal funding. Hospitals agreed to billions in Medicare cuts as part of the health law and are worried about facing further spending reductions. The hospitals ran an initial ad last month.

The new ad is scheduled to run on national cable channels and in at least 12 cities, including Pittsburgh and Las Vegas, and may run multiple weeks, says Federation of American Hospitals spokesman Richard Coorsh.

Members of the coalition include the AHA, the Federation of American Hospitals, National Association of Public Hospitals, HCA and about two dozen other groups.

Watch the video below.

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