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Swift Boat Watch: Health Care for America NOW!

See all Swift Boat Watch entries here.

Who They Are: Health Care for America Now

Purpose: To support quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

Director: The national campaign manager is Richard Hirsch, previously executive director of Citizen Action, an organization that helped the poor find insurance in New York state.

Funding: The organization has received a $10 million dollar grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies as well as $500,000 a piece from their 16 steering committee members, which include MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and the recently targeted community-organizing group ACORN.

Cost: $1 million, part of a larger $4.3 million dollar ad buy that will air similar ads against congressional candidates.

Where It Ran: The ad aired on national cable and major markets in Ohio for two weeks starting Oct. 8.

Claims: The ad is narrated by a woman with cancer who says that John McCain’s health care plan could cause 20 million people lose their employer-provided health insurance plans. Those with existing conditions like her, she says, would not be able to get a new plan.

Accuracy: John McCain’s health care plan would give families a $5,000 dollar tax refundable tax credit to purchase health insurance while reducing incentives that encourage employers to provide their employees with coverage. The main thrust of the ad – that 20 million people would lose their insurance if John McCain’s plan were instituted – is supported by a recent paper published in the journal Health Affairs and a follow-up report (PDF) by the Economic Policy Institute. These studies argue that, with fewer tax incentives, fewer businesses will offer insurance plans. The Commonwealth Fund has documented the difficulty of finding health care individually after losing an employer-sponsored plan and the Kaiser Family Foundation including in the case of breast-cancer survivors (PDF) and other individuals with pre-existing conditions. However, another recent study (PDF), by the health system consultant HSI, argued that McCain’s plan would in fact reduce the number of uninsured people by 20 million. And a Tax Policy Center report (PDF) lands in the middle, agreeing that McCain’s proposal would cause 20 million to lose or leave their employer-sponsored program but saying also that overall the proposal would decrease the number of uninsured by one million as 21 million bought non-employer-sponsored plans, including some of those who lost their employer-sponsored plans.

Factcheck.org has examined McCain’s proposal and found a consensus among health care experts that McCain’s proposal would most likely cause employers to reduce the coverage offered. Their report also stated that while some would benefit from the adjustment of incentives, the old and unhealthy would probably get the short end of the stick, as Jane Bryant Quinn argued in Newsweek.

Swift Boat Rating:
Several studies state that around 20 million people could lose their employer-sponsored coverage, though the ad doesn’t mention that many would likely get non-employer plans. That being said, many health care experts agree with the assertion that McCain’s plan would make it harder for people like the woman portrayed in the ad to secure health insurance.
Background: Health Care for America Now is a coalition of non-profits and public officials. Obama has signed their statement of principles.