Administration’s Sales Campaign to Seniors Falls Flat
Politico has an interesting piece this morning about “Obama’s Health Care Hard Sell,” specifically focusing on why the health care law remains unpopular with seniors. The article comes on the heels of the Medicare trustees report last week, and follows the release of a new Gallup survey showing that the President’s approval rating among seniors dropped to an all-time low of 36% last week.
William Galston, a former Clinton Administration official, called the health care sales campaign towards seniors an exercise in futility:
“It’s going to be a really tough sell. It’s difficult for [seniors] to see how this bill will make them better off, given that a substantial portion of the savings will come out of Medicare Advantage…Speaking as a Democrat, I hope I’m wrong. But speaking as a political analyst, I don’t think I am.”
Another expert criticized the Administration’s messaging efforts: “From the very beginning of health care reform, President Obama sent out this message he could never bring back, which was [that] the savings to finance the health reform were going to come from Medicare…As much as he tried to reel that in, he didn’t much succeed.”
These comments illustrate seniors’ unease with the President’s broken promises – that millions of seniors who like their Medicare Advantage plans will not be able to keep them – and the general concept of using savings within Medicare to create unsustainable new entitlements. And as for the supposed benefits to seniors in the new law, like the $250 prescription drug rebate checks? “They have a $3,000 doughnut hole that’s not going to close until 2020. So $250 isn’t that much, in context.”
Also of note: The Politico article referred to a “months-long, multimillion-dollar television campaign featuring Andy Griffith to promote health reform’s free preventive care and lower prescription costs.” Previous press reports indicated that the “initial cost” of the ad campaign was only $700,000. Does the higher number cited in this morning’s Politico piece mean the Administration is now doubling down on its bad bet, and continuing to use taxpayer dollars to run what factcheck.org termed misleading ads in an attempt to sell seniors regarding their unpopular health care law?