Medicare Goes Mayberry: Andy Griffith Sells Health Reform Law
EmailABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports:
Andy Griffith is the new pitch man for the new health care
law, promising seniors their benefits will not be cut. The 84 year-old TV icon appears in a video produced by HHS, posted online and set to air on cable TV. It promises
seniors that Medicare will continue.
“This year like always, we’ll get our guaranteed benefits,”
says Andy, after pointing to 1965 – “a lot of good things came out of
that year” – when Medicare was enacted.
“And with the new health care law, more good things are
coming,” he says, pointing to "Free checkups, lower prescription costs, and better ways to
protect us and Medicare from fraud."
Critics of the law opposed its enactment because it is paid
for in large part with half a trillion dollars the government it hopes it can
save by making Medicare more efficient and by paying less money to private companies
that offer Medicare Advantage plans – Medicare benefits paid for by the
government but offered through private companies in bundled HMO plans .
The ad, technically part of Medicare's open enrollment effort, fits nicely with the White House’s ongoing effort
to wind down from the contentious health reform debate and reassure Americans,
particularly seniors, ahead of the November elections, that the new law will
not hurt their coverage.
The administration has bought $700,000 worth of ad on national cable time for the commercial so far. More is expected in the future.
For the record, Opie does not appear to qualify for Medicare
until 2019.
This post has been updated.
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Mr. Griffith I am so disappointed about your participating in this ad. Doesn’t $7000,000 so far is spendt on advertising. Something is wrong with this.I.m very disappointed in you and some north carolians also are, I live here and my oh my. But we decised your an actor and so is he, disgrace to the office
Posted by: patty lou | July 30, 2010, 12:34 pm 12:34 pm
I guess the same people that are paying for the “free checkups” are paying for this ad.
Our TAXES pay for everything…NOTHING IS FREE.
Posted by: thatisall | July 30, 2010, 2:11 pm 2:11 pm
Why do people care what actors and actresses think anyway. Are people really that stupid that they cannot decide the merits of an issue without some ignorant entertainer telling them what to believe
Posted by: Rob | July 30, 2010, 8:10 pm 8:10 pm
Bottom line, Bertwick- Health Care Czar has a “romance ” with Britains’ system which rations care, especially to older people. Look out people, Soylent Green may be our future.
Posted by: Downwithsocialism | July 30, 2010, 9:48 pm 9:48 pm
What a shame… another icon trades his honor and reputation for another trip on the merry-go-round.
We saw the same sad story with John Glenn, who traded his honor, his reputation, his life’s accomplishment to defend a total reprobate, Mr. Clinton, in his Monica Lewinsky issue… in hopes of a final ride into space on the shuttle…
Sic transit gloria mundi!
Posted by: Quo Warranto? | August 2, 2010, 1:02 am 1:02 am
I resent my taxpayer dollars are being spent in this manner.
Obamacare is already a law, which makes this a political ad.
Posted by: marybel | August 2, 2010, 9:07 pm 9:07 pm
Health care is just going to be great. You will be able to drink plant water straight out of the pot,have not just one bologna sandwhich but two. We can’t just keep using a new needle every time so we can all share the same needle,it is just too expensive. Hospital beds are too costly also so we can all sleep on mats on the floor, if you can be lucky enough to get into the hospital at all. As for andy, into the trash with all of the dvds I own of his work.
Posted by: johnny2060414 | August 6, 2010, 2:25 am 2:25 am
As a man who was characterized as the epitome of common sense, hard work, and the American ideal, he has betrayed his typecast by endorsing Obamacare. It seems that now Andy Griffith is in the minority regarding his views, and that most Americans oppose the recently passed healthcare legislation. Could it be that now Andy Griffith is the one who is clueless and the majority of the American people who idolized his common sense character and oppose Obamacare are now the smart ones?
I’m very disappointed in him. He’s proven that he is no North Carolinian, but just another liberal California actor. Or maybe he has a screw loose in his old age. I wonder how he will feel when he is denied healthcare due to his age when he gets a terminal illness that the Obamacare regulations won’t cover?
Posted by: dave911 | September 21, 2010, 10:09 pm 10:09 pm
Someone in the Obama administration must have seen the movie “A Face in the Crowd”, where Andy as “Lonesome Rhodes” tells his on-set cast that “he can get ‘em to eat dog food and make ‘em think it’s steak”.
I remember Andy shilling for Nabisco. Now he’s Obama’s “Good Cracker! Good Cracker!” Thanks Lonesome.
Posted by: OldSalt | October 12, 2010, 12:54 pm 12:54 pm