SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
"The monied interests who oppose M4A will flood the airwaves and try to prey on our every insecurity to break up our movement," said the Democratic Socialists of America's Medicare for All campaign. (Image: Partnership for America's Health Care Future/Screengrab)
"Don't Listen to Them": Insurance Industry Front Group to Run Ads Attacking Medicare for All During Democratic Debate
"We are winning, so the industry is attacking Medicare for All to protect their profits and help the politicians defending those profits."
Feb 18, 2020
The Partnership for America's Health Care Future, an insurance industry front group formed in 2018 to combat Medicare for All, announced Wednesday that it will run television and social media ads against healthcare reform during the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas.
PAHCF said in a statement that the 30-second spot will air on MSNBC--a co-host of Wednesday night's debate--as well as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. The group said it is also planning "a takeover of YouTube's homepage."
The ad characterizes Medicare for All and incremental alternatives like the public option as "one-size-fits-all" proposals that would strip people of "choice" and impose tens of trillions of dollars in higher taxes.
The ad cites the conservative Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget on the potential cost of Medicare for All but fails to mention studies showing single-payer would save hundreds of billions of dollars--and tens of thousands of lives--each year.
Watch:
PAHCF described the ad blitz as "part of a substantial national public education effort." But Jasmine Ruddy, lead Medicare for All organizer with National Nurses United, tweeted that the goal of the campaign is to "spread straight-up lies about Medicare for All."
Michael Lighty, an activist with the Democratic Socialists of America's Medicare for All campaign, told Common Dreams that "there's a lot of irony in the healthcare industry promoting 'access and choice'--two elements they have strip-mined from the U.S. healthcare system, leaving a landscape of denied care, 45,000 deaths, and 140 million Americans suffering financial hardship because of private health insurance."
"We are winning," Lighty said of the movement for single-payer, "so the industry is attacking Medicare for All to protect their profits and help the politicians defending those profits."
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the author of the Medicare for All Act of 2019 in the Senate, debuted an ad of his own Wednesday titled "Medicare for All Leaves No One Behind." The ad features Lourdes Esparza, a Las Vegas-based organizer with the Clark County Education Association, the largest independent educators union in the United States.
"My mom was telling me that her medicine in a whole year was $40,000," Esparza says in the spot. "We have to stop thinking that this is normal because it's not."
"Bernie's Medicare for All leaves nobody behind and guarantees healthcare as a right for all of us," Esparza adds. "It's a right and nobody has the right to take that from us. Not Big Pharma, not other people that have other interests. It's my health. I need healthcare."
Watch:
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The Partnership for America's Health Care Future, an insurance industry front group formed in 2018 to combat Medicare for All, announced Wednesday that it will run television and social media ads against healthcare reform during the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas.
PAHCF said in a statement that the 30-second spot will air on MSNBC--a co-host of Wednesday night's debate--as well as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. The group said it is also planning "a takeover of YouTube's homepage."
The ad characterizes Medicare for All and incremental alternatives like the public option as "one-size-fits-all" proposals that would strip people of "choice" and impose tens of trillions of dollars in higher taxes.
The ad cites the conservative Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget on the potential cost of Medicare for All but fails to mention studies showing single-payer would save hundreds of billions of dollars--and tens of thousands of lives--each year.
Watch:
PAHCF described the ad blitz as "part of a substantial national public education effort." But Jasmine Ruddy, lead Medicare for All organizer with National Nurses United, tweeted that the goal of the campaign is to "spread straight-up lies about Medicare for All."
Michael Lighty, an activist with the Democratic Socialists of America's Medicare for All campaign, told Common Dreams that "there's a lot of irony in the healthcare industry promoting 'access and choice'--two elements they have strip-mined from the U.S. healthcare system, leaving a landscape of denied care, 45,000 deaths, and 140 million Americans suffering financial hardship because of private health insurance."
"We are winning," Lighty said of the movement for single-payer, "so the industry is attacking Medicare for All to protect their profits and help the politicians defending those profits."
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the author of the Medicare for All Act of 2019 in the Senate, debuted an ad of his own Wednesday titled "Medicare for All Leaves No One Behind." The ad features Lourdes Esparza, a Las Vegas-based organizer with the Clark County Education Association, the largest independent educators union in the United States.
"My mom was telling me that her medicine in a whole year was $40,000," Esparza says in the spot. "We have to stop thinking that this is normal because it's not."
"Bernie's Medicare for All leaves nobody behind and guarantees healthcare as a right for all of us," Esparza adds. "It's a right and nobody has the right to take that from us. Not Big Pharma, not other people that have other interests. It's my health. I need healthcare."
Watch:
The Partnership for America's Health Care Future, an insurance industry front group formed in 2018 to combat Medicare for All, announced Wednesday that it will run television and social media ads against healthcare reform during the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas.
PAHCF said in a statement that the 30-second spot will air on MSNBC--a co-host of Wednesday night's debate--as well as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. The group said it is also planning "a takeover of YouTube's homepage."
The ad characterizes Medicare for All and incremental alternatives like the public option as "one-size-fits-all" proposals that would strip people of "choice" and impose tens of trillions of dollars in higher taxes.
The ad cites the conservative Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget on the potential cost of Medicare for All but fails to mention studies showing single-payer would save hundreds of billions of dollars--and tens of thousands of lives--each year.
Watch:
PAHCF described the ad blitz as "part of a substantial national public education effort." But Jasmine Ruddy, lead Medicare for All organizer with National Nurses United, tweeted that the goal of the campaign is to "spread straight-up lies about Medicare for All."
Michael Lighty, an activist with the Democratic Socialists of America's Medicare for All campaign, told Common Dreams that "there's a lot of irony in the healthcare industry promoting 'access and choice'--two elements they have strip-mined from the U.S. healthcare system, leaving a landscape of denied care, 45,000 deaths, and 140 million Americans suffering financial hardship because of private health insurance."
"We are winning," Lighty said of the movement for single-payer, "so the industry is attacking Medicare for All to protect their profits and help the politicians defending those profits."
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the author of the Medicare for All Act of 2019 in the Senate, debuted an ad of his own Wednesday titled "Medicare for All Leaves No One Behind." The ad features Lourdes Esparza, a Las Vegas-based organizer with the Clark County Education Association, the largest independent educators union in the United States.
"My mom was telling me that her medicine in a whole year was $40,000," Esparza says in the spot. "We have to stop thinking that this is normal because it's not."
"Bernie's Medicare for All leaves nobody behind and guarantees healthcare as a right for all of us," Esparza adds. "It's a right and nobody has the right to take that from us. Not Big Pharma, not other people that have other interests. It's my health. I need healthcare."
Watch:
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.