Advertising wars escalate in health care fight

WASHINGTON -- The type of advertising war that helped doom the last effort to overhaul the nation's health care system is heating up.

Business groups opposed to health care bills floated by House and Senate Democrats launched print ads this week. The Republican National Committee ran its own TV ad as well.

Until now, ads for and against President Obama's proposed health care overhaul have been run by lesser-known groups. Interested groups are stepping up their efforts during Congress' July Fourth recess.

"It's probably the starting gun," says Evan Tracey of Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political advertising.

The boost in negative ads comes as Congress begins to move on Democratic legislation. Of concern to employers is a provision that would force them to offer insurance or pay fees. Health insurers don't want to compete with a public insurance plan funded at least in part by tax dollars.

Whether the advertising reaches the level of 1994 remains to be seen. Then, the health insurance industry ran a series of TV ads featuring a couple, Harry and Louise, that helped to bring down President Clinton's complex plan.

This week's entries have been the most pointed so far this year. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce ran a full-page ad in Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, opposing the employer mandate and public insurance plan. "Health care reform that punishes employers would be bad for the economy and jobs," the ad warned.

The National Federation of Independent Business ran an ad in The Hill, a similar publication, and plans an Internet ad next week. "We need to make it really clear that a mandate will kill jobs," spokeswoman Stephanie Cathcart said.

The GOP ad ran Wednesday on cable TV as ABC aired a town-hall-style meeting on health care from the White House. "When he says 'government option,' that means putting government bureaucrats in charge," the ad intoned.

So far, insurers have kept their money on the sidelines. "It's still early in the process," says Robert Zirkelbach of America's Health Insurance Plans. "We haven't taken anything off the table."