Ad Campaign Counterattacks Against Overhaul’s Critics

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
NYT

The battle for public opinion over health care intensified further on Thursday when a strange-bedfellows coalition including drug companies, doctors and a big labor union, all favoring an overhaul, opened a $12 million television advertising campaign directed at 12 states.

The advertisements are intended to counter the sharp criticism of President Obama’s overhaul efforts that has emerged at town-hall-style meetings. Change, they say, would have a positive effect.

Over soothing piano music, the narrator in one commercial tells viewers that change would mean that they could not be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions or be dropped from their plans if they get sick, and that they could still make their own medical decisions, in consultation with their doctors.

“So what does health insurance reform really mean?” the narrator says. “Quality, affordable care you can count on.”

(More here.)