The insurance industry opened a new advertising blitz on Monday against key elements of President Clinton's health-reform plan, and a full-scale battle of the airwaves may be imminent.
The $ 2 million ad campaign by the Health Insurance Association of America features "Harry and Louise," the middle-class couple whose earlier complaints about mandatory purchasing cooperatives may have killed that proposal.
This time, the couple and Harry's younger brother, "Pat," gripe about proposed price controls and requiring insurers to offer the same rate to everyone, regardless of age or other factors.
The ads represent the end of a short-lived agreement to keep the defiant couple off the air while a key House committee sought compromises acceptable to the insurance industry. That pact was shelved with the indictment of Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill.
"Our advocacy efforts are intended to improve the bill that will pass, not to prevent a bill from passing," said the group's president, ex-GOP congressman Bill Gradison.
Two TV ads aimed at key lawmakers raise the threat of health care rationing if price controls are instituted and a combination of less coverage and higher rates if "flat community rating" is required.
The Clinton administration immediately cried foul.
"The effort now in these 30-second commercials is to raise additional scare tactics," said White House budget director Leon Panetta.
Gradison's group of mostly small insurers isn't the only one seeking allies through advertising. The Group Health Association of America, which represents health maintenance organizations, plans a $ 1 million TV campaign next month. And both the Alliance for Managed Competition, which represents five big insurance companies, and the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Association are running new print ads.
Other groups opposed to elements of health-care reform are waiting in the wings, including those representing doctors, hospitals and drug companies. The Republican National Committee may unveil a new TV spot this month, and the conservative Empower America lobby began a radio ad Monday.
The barrage against Clinton's program is more than his forces can match. The HIAA alone has spent $ 10 million on TV ads since last year. But pro-reform groups aren't being drowned out.
The Health Care Reform Project and other consumer-led coalitions that have run pro-Clinton ads are gearing up for more, timed to the July 4 congressional recess.
"We've got people. We don't have dollars," said John Rother, leader of the project and chief lobbyist for the American Association of Retired Persons. "We're not going to be able to mount the kind of dollar-for-dollar air war that they can afford."
