DURHAM -- As Congress nears a vote on health care, North Carolinians are being bombarded with TV and radio ads, robocalls and public events that have taken on the intensity of the final week of an election.
Opponents of President Barack Obama's health care plan ran commercials on Triangle television stations aimed at Democratic U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, who is being targeted by both sides as the president seeks the final votes for House passage. Etheridge, who voted for the health care bill last year, has not said how he would vote this time.
Triangle Conservatives Unite announced plans for a noon rally in front of the congressman's office today similar to one they held last week.
U.S. Rep. David Price, a Democrat from Chapel Hill who supports the bill, held a news conference Monday in Durham to emphasize the need for health care changes.
"We need to fix a system that has been broken for decades," he said. "We need to provide stability to families and businesses."
But business groups warned of tax increases if the plan passes.
"The highest unemployment in 25 years and Congress' latest health care bill makes a tough economy worse," said a TV ad paid for by a business coalition headed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Retail Federation. "Over five hundred billion in crushing tax increases."
Another TV ad being run by a conservative group, Americans for Prosperity, features a breast cancer survivor who warns that access to medical procedures will be limited under the Democratic plan. Some Triangle residents also received recorded telephone messages from commentator and former political consultant Dick Morris, saying the Obama plan was "socialized medicine" that would raise taxes. The call was sponsored by Citizens United, a conservative organization.
Need for bill defended
Supporters of the Democratic plan gathered with Price to rebut some of the charges.
"This is about expanding mammograms and other diagnostic procedures," Price said at his district office in Durham. "For someone to run an ad suggesting that health reform is somehow about restricting this is just about as low as it gets."
Price predicted the House would pass a health care bill, although he said it would be close. At his event, which the national Democratic Party helped put together, Price introduced several people who would benefit from the health care bill before Congress.
David Swanson, a 44-year old Durham businessman, saw his insurance premiums jump 54 percent for his healthy daughter when she turned 17 because of her age. "It's a small thing, but it's a big thing for us," said Swanson, who added he would like to have the option of buying insurance from someone other than Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Libby Huff, 48, a Hillsborough homemaker, said her teenage daughter survived a heart attack last year because of a rare genetic condition. The daughter will require medication and other treatments the rest of her life, but she will have difficulty getting health insurance after college because of a pre-existing condition. "Our daughter should not be penalized for having survived," Huff said.
"For families like this it's not time to start over," Price said, referring to Republican proposal to scrap the health care bill and begin anew.
They'll be on radio, too
Americans United for Change, a Washington-based liberal group, has begun running radio ads on stations in Charlotte, Greenville, Fayetteville, Raleigh and Wilmington, asking listeners to contact their representatives in Congress to support the health care bill.
"President Obama's plan would rein insurance rates ... prevent insurance giants from denying coverage when you're sick," says the ad. "But the insurance giants are using every weapon in their arsenal to block reform."
The Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, began airing ads on North Carolina radio stations supporting efforts to make health care more affordable. While the ad doesn't specifically support Obama's plan, it says it's a good start.
