Democratic Presidential Nominee Obama Addresses Health Care, Other Issues In 30-Minute Advertisement

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 31 Oct 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET aired a 30-minute advertisement on seven television networks during which he discussed health care and other issues, Bloomberg reports (Jensen/Goldman, Bloomberg, 10/29). The ad cost more than $3 million (Slevin, Washington Post, 10/30).

During part of the ad, Obama stood before a desk and discussed his proposals for health care and other issues (Rutenberg, "The Caucus," New York Times, 10/29). Obama said that "every American has a right to affordable health coverage" (Woodward, AP/Boston Globe, 10/29). The ad also featured U.S. residents who discussed their personal concerns about health care and other issues (Kuhnhenn, AP/Bergen Record, 10/29). Obama also discussed worries his mother had about health coverage during her treatment for ovarian cancer ("The Caucus," New York Times, 10/29).

In advance of the ad, Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) during a campaign stop in Florida said that Obama has "got a few things he wants to sell you," such as "offering government-run health care" (AP/Bergen Record, 10/29).

Additional Developments
Summaries of several other recent developments related to health care issues in the presidential election appear below.

• Center for American Progress: The center plans to release a 50-chapter book that lays out "how to run a Democratic administration" and includes a proposal for health care reform, AP/Newsweek reports. According to AP/Newsweek, the center calls for refundable tax credits to help some U.S. residents cover the cost of health insurance premiums. In addition, the center calls for a requirement that all residents obtain health insurance or pay a fee to help finance any health care they would require in the event of illness or injury. Basic Books plans to release the "Progressive Blueprint" in the days after the presidential election in the event that Obama wins (Babington, AP/Newsweek, 10/30).
  
  
• Congress on presidential agenda: Three "main factions are emerging" in Congress with advice for Obama on his legislative agenda in the event that he wins the presidential election, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, one group, led by "old bull" liberals, seeks to address a number of "big-ticket issues," such as universal health care, early in an Obama presidency. A second group, which includes fiscally conservative Democrats, "say the money for Sen. Obama's ambitious agenda simply isn't there" and argue that "one of the first acts of the next Congress should be approving a bipartisan commission to tackle the deficit and the growth of entitlements, such as Medicare and Medicaid," the Journal reports. A third group, which "could be labeled the middle-ground pragmatists," says Obama "should move quickly on a few items with proven bipartisan support," such as an expansion of SCHIP funded by an increase in the federal tobacco tax and increased federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, according to the Journal (Weisman, Wall Street Journal, 10/30).
  
  
• Economic issues: The next president will face a "host of acute economic problems," such as health care, on a "scale not seen since the 1930s," Reuters reports. According to Reuters, both Obama and McCain cite "bringing down high health care costs and reforming the health insurance system as an economic priority" (Reuters, 10/30).
  
  
• Examination of health care proposals: The Dallas Morning News on Thursday examined the Obama and McCain health care proposals. In addition, the Morning News examined the accuracy of statements that Obama and McCain have made about the proposals of their opponents (Dallas Morning News, 10/30).
  
  
• Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas): Burgess has traveled to 10 states to promote the McCain health care proposal, the Morning News reports. According to the Morning News, Burgess, an obstetrician, is the only physician on the McCain team of health care advisers and would become "a White House insider and a go-to lawmaker on health care issues" in the event that McCain wins the presidential election (Michaels, Dallas Morning News, 10/30).

Opinion Pieces
Several newspapers recently published opinion pieces that addressed health care issues in the presidential election. Summaries appear below.

• Ruth Faden/Madison Powers, Baltimore Sun: "Mr. McCain's and Mr. Obama's health plans are based on very different moral visions of what makes a health care system fair, and this difference offers voters a real basis for choice," Faden, director of the Johns Hopkins University Berman Institute of Bioethics, and Powers, director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, write in a Sun opinion piece. The authors write, "What Mr. McCain sees as unfair about our current system is how the costs of health care are financed," which "is right," but "unfairness in financing is only a part of what is morally wrong with our health care system." Obama "sees as the most unfair about the system ... the profound disadvantages that people without access to adequate health care experience," the authors add. According to the authors, "when it comes to fairness, McCain gets it half right, but Obama gets it more right" (Faden/Powers, Baltimore Sun, 10/30).
  
  
• Al Franken, St. Paul Pioneer Press: "I like Obama's approach, and I would proudly support it," but "I'll be blunt: I think McCain's health care proposal would be a disaster for Minnesota families," Franken, a U.S. Senate candidate from Minnesota, writes in a Pioneer Press opinion piece. According to Franken, the Obama proposal would ensure that, "if you have health insurance that works for you ... you get to keep it," reduce costs "by as much as $200 billion a year" and "guarantee that insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions and preventive health measures." Meanwhile, under the McCain proposal, "as many as 580,000 Minnesotans could outright lose their employer-sponsored health care, and we'd all be at the mercy of the insurance companies," Franken writes (Franken, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 10/29).
  
  
• Clive Crook, Atlantic: "I think McCain's health credit is good as far as it goes, but it does not go nearly far enough," Atlantic columnist Crook writes. Meanwhile, "Obama's plan would expand coverage much more, and it seems to me that this should be a key goal," Crook writes. He adds, "However, the fact remains that McCain's plan would put more disposable income (net of taxes and health care outlays) in the pockets of most middle-income voters" (Crook, Atlantic, 10/29).
  
  
• Jonah Goldberg, Chicago Tribune: "Obama prefers the word 'progressive' to 'liberal' because it makes it sound like he's shedding old liberal ideas" but, "if he is, it's only to embrace older ones," National Review Online editor Goldberg writes in a Tribune opinion piece. Goldberg writes, "Officially, Obama says he is not advocating single-payer health care" because that "would seem too un-moderate," but Obama in 2003 "told the AFL-CIO, 'I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program. ... But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because we have to take back the White House.'" Goldberg adds, "Only in a country of amnesiacs could one claim that socialized medicine is a 'new idea'" (Goldberg, Chicago Tribune, 10/30).
  
  
• Scott Bahr, Detroit News: "I don't want employer-provided health care, and neither should you," because of the cost Bahr, a Michigan resident, writes in a News opinion piece. The "John McCain health care plan would help save money," he writes, adding, "I shudder to think how bad" health insurance costs "would be in a national plan, yet this is exactly what Barack Obama supports." McCain would provide the average employee with the "same health care with a little extra income and virtually no change in taxes," Bahr writes, adding, "Obama's plan spreads costs, while McCain's plan actually cuts costs" (Bahr, Detroit News, 10/30).
  
  
• Charles Roehrig/George Miller, Detroit News: Neither Obama nor McCain has announced a health care proposal that would "create a financially sustainable system that provides affordable, high quality care for decades to come," Roehrig, vice president of the Altarum Institute, and Miller, a senior analyst at the institute, write in a News opinion piece. They cite the need to "improve the health system in ways that reduce cost growth and demonstrably increase the value of existing spending" and "address stagnant incomes at the lower end of the income scale." According to the authors, the next president "will find resistance to expensive new programs," but the "problem of unaffordable health insurance will only get worse." They conclude, "Understanding the importance of creating a truly sustainable health system will help the next president make difficult trade-offs in difficult times" (Roehrig/Miller, Detroit News, 10/30).
  
  
• Elaine Rose/Mo West, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: The McCain health care proposal, which would "deregulate the health care industry," is "worse for women" than the Obama plan, Rose, CEO of Planned Parenthood VOTES Washington, and West, chair of the group, write in a Post-Intelligencer opinion piece. Under the McCain proposal, "30 million women who suffer from a pre-existing condition could lose their coverage," and the plan would eliminate "important state insurance requirements aimed at protecting women's access to basic health needs," the authors write. They write, "After the recent financial catastrophe, we've all seen just how disastrous an unregulated and excessively greedy banking system has been for our country," adding, "We can't let the same thing happen to health care -- it's just too important" (Rose/West, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/29).

Broadcast Coverage
WAMU's "The Diane Rehm Show" on Thursday included a comparison of proposals from Obama and McCain on health care and other issues. The segment includes comments from Karen Tumulty, a reporter for Time Magazine; Greg Ip, U.S. economics editor for The Economist; and Warren Strobel, senior correspondent for foreign affairs at McClatchy's Washington, D.C. bureau (Rehm, "The Diane Rehm Show," WAMU, 10/30).

In addition, Washington Post reporter Amy Goldstein on Wednesday in a Post Live Discussion addressed the Obama and McCain health care proposals (Goldstein, Washington Post Live Discussion, 10/29).

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