Partnership Launches Ads Around Democratic Debates

WASHINGTON – With health care sure to be a major topic as Democratic presidential contenders take the stage in Florida tonight and tomorrow, the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future today launched a timely, targeted digital advertising campaign to educate the American public on the realities of a one-size-fits-all health care system.

“If you’re watching the Democratic debate online tonight, expect to see a lot of the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future,” POLITICO reports. “The group is sponsoring YouTube’s homepage in 2020 early primary states, as well as in Miami and Washington, D.C. … It also will run video ads online, including on MSNBC’s platform.”  The Partnership will also run video ads on Twitter and Facebook, and will sponsor a health care-themed SnapChat geofilter around the debate venue.

“As Americans follow these debates, they’ll hear plenty of lofty rhetoric about ‘Medicare for all’ and other government-run insurance systems.  We are focused on helping them cut through that clutter and get to the facts – because while Americans consistently say health care is among their top concerns, polls show there’s a lot of confusion out there about what these one-size-fits-all systems would actually mean for patients and taxpayers,” said Lauren Crawford Shaver, the Partnership’s executive director.  “Americans deserve to know about the high costs and serious risks to their health care that come with a government-run insurance system, because whether that system is called ‘Medicare for all,’ ‘Medicare buy-in’ or a ‘public option,’ hardworking families would ultimately be forced to pay more to wait longer for worse care.
 
“We can all agree that every American deserves access to high-quality health care, but these proposed new government insurance systems are the wrong way to achieve that.  Instead, with roughly 90 percent of Americans now covered, a majority satisfied with their care, and those with preexisting conditions protected by law, our leaders should build and improve upon what is working and come together to fix what isn’t,” she continued.

New national polling data by the Kaiser Family Foundation reveals that “majorities of Americans are unaware of the kind of dramatic changes that [Medicare for all] would bring to the nation’s health care system,” underscoring the need for public education on the issue.  “One big mistake: 55 percent of respondents mistakenly believe that people with private insurance would be able to keep their current arrangement under Medicare for All,” POLITICO reports.

However, “[t]here’s one thing Americans understand about Medicare-for-all: It would mean higher taxes … Americans seem most familiar with the fact that Medicare-for-all would require massively higher taxes,” The Washington Post reports.  As Kaiser notes, “eight in 10 Americans (78%) are aware that taxes would increase for most people under such a plan.”
 
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) finds that even a low-end estimated Medicare for all price tag of $30 trillion over a decade “would mean increasing federal spending by about 60 percent (excluding interest)” and “require the equivalent of tripling payroll taxes or more than doubling all other taxes.”  Previous national polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that six in 10 Americans oppose Medicare for all once they learn it forces families to pay more in taxes.
 

• To learn more about Medicare for all and so-called “moderate” fallback proposals, CLICK HERE.

• To learn more about the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, CLICK HERE.

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