NEW: Republican Ads Mislead on Health Care Using Shady Special Interest-Funded Report [Open Secrets]

McConnell-Linked Groups Running Ads Based on Same Study Paid For By “Deep-Pocketed Coalition” of Big Pharma & Insurance Industry Corporate Interests

A new investigation from Open Secrets exposes how a network of McConnell-linked Republican groups are using a speculative report funded by Washington’s “most influential lobbying groups” for the pharmaceutical and insurance companies to misleadingly attack Democrats as Republican Senate incumbents struggle to defend their own health care records. The “industry-backed study” has been featured in ads in competitive Senate races, including Arizona, Iowa, North Carolina, Montana, and Alaska.

“Senate Republicans are relying on the special interests to prop up their misleading ads because they can’t defend their votes to gut access to health care and protections for people with pre-existing conditions,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Voters know that Republican senators are nothing more than mouthpieces for their corporate donors, and they’ll hold them accountable for putting their special interest allies over health care protections for hardworking families.”

Open Secrets: GOP groups, healthcare industry attack Democrats’ public option

By Karl Evers-Hillstrom

September 30, 2020

Key Points:

• Republican super PACs aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are attacking Democratic Senate candidates over their support for a public health insurance option, arguing the policy would lead to widespread hospital closures in rural areas. 

• Each of those ads cite a study that was paid for by a group of major insurers, pharmaceutical companies and hospitals. That deep-pocketed coalition is currently running its own ad campaign aiming to reduce support for the public option. 

• The two-pronged attack on the public option — a proposal to reduce patients’ costs without transitioning entirely to a government-run system like “Medicare for All” — comes as Democratic groups hammer Republican incumbents over health care, an issue the GOP has struggled to address under President Donald Trump. 

• Republicans’ narrow Senate majority is threatened by Democratic challengers in several states, including Arizona, where Democrat Mark Kelly is polling ahead of and significantly outraising Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.). The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund, which has spent $78 million to influence voters this cycle, recently released an ad stating the public option would “close hospitals across Arizona.” 

• Plains PAC, a super PAC funded by the Senate Leadership Fund, released its own ad attacking Iowa Senate challenger Theresa Greenfield over potential hospital closures. Another recent ad from the closely affiliated American Crossroads hits North Carolina Democrat Cal Cunningham over his support for a public option, stating it would close two dozen hospitals in the Tarheel State. 

• Those ads cite a 2019 study that argues a public option would shift patients away from private insurance and the government would pay out lower reimbursement rates to rural hospitals that are already struggling. 

• The study was sponsored by the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a group funded by several of the most influential lobbying groups in Washington, including Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, American Hospital Association and America’s Health Insurance Plans.

• Republicans’ North Carolina ad says 24 rural hospitals would close under the public option, citing the most extreme scenario in the study in which there is a “major employer shift to the public option.” The Iowa ad also cites the worst-case scenario for hospitals, where 52 hospitals would be forced to close. 

• The industry-backed study speculates about the public option’s reimbursement rate, but Biden has not detailed specifics of his plan. 

• The American Medical Association, the nation’s largest lobbying group representing physicians, dropped out of the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future last year after the partnership’s study was released.

• The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future is running an extensive TV ad campaign through Election Day that argues the nation should “build on what’s working, not start over.” ….Like the ads from GOP groups, the partnership’s ads also warn about potential hospital closures and higher taxes. 

• Election forecasters at FiveThirtyEight say Democrats are slight favorites to take the Senate. Republicans are playing defense in roughly a dozen states, including unlikely venues like Alaska where the Senate Leadership Fund has spent nearly $680,000 opposing Democratic-backed independent candidate Al Gross. Its recent ad attacks Gross for supporting the public option, again citing the healthcare industry’s study.

• Republicans are also playing defense in Montana, where polls show a close race between Sen. Daines and Gov. Steve Bullock. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has spent a whopping $7.3 million in the race, and they’ve also made potential hospital closures an issue in recent ads. 

• Current polling shows support for a public option. A May Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that two-thirds of respondents approved of the proposal. Republicans, and healthcare industry groups, are counting on the public to continue to approve of employer-based insurance.

• Meanwhile, Republicans are currently appealing to the Supreme Court to strike down the Obama-era law. Democrats are making the case that Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett could be the deciding vote in that case. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said a vote to confirm Barrett “is a vote to strike down the Affordable Care Act and eliminate protections for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions.”

Read the full story here.

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