Americans for Prosperity spent more than $60,000 in North Carolina to run a television ad that questions the new health care law according to the Raleigh News and Observer.
The ad features the mother of a young girl who has had four open heart surgeries. She worries that the law will restrict the freedom of patients to keep their doctors.
The group plans to spend $41,375 on WSOC and $20,050 at WBTV, according to Political Moneyline. Both stations operate in the Charlotte market. The AFP is running the ads in Tampa, Fla., Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C.
“The average North Carolinian feels very strongly about their freedom to choose their own personal doctor,” said Chris Farr, state director of AFP in North Carolina. “For those citizens who have a serious illness affecting their loved ones, the freedom to choose a doctor becomes even more crucial. Obamacare threatens that freedom, and people are not going to sit by and quietly accept this impact on their lives.”
Another obvious attempt to confuse citizens on the effects of the Affordable Care Act and create fear. I have Blue Cross and Blue Shield coverage now, and I have networks of healthcare providers. That is how HMOs and PPOs work and have worked for years.
From the NBC News/WSJ Poll last week:
most Americans say they don't have a good grasp of what the law entails. Thirty-four percent say they don’t understand the law very well, and another 35 percent say they understand it only “some."
Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC2) is still beating the drum of how "Obamacare" will hurt US' economy and health system. She said on Twitter: "Americans by 45-23% say #Obamacare will have negative rather than positive impact on healthcare system." This is true.
However, it is obvious to anyone who has followed the polls that folks are afraid of the unknown, and they consider this reform as an unknown. Instead of trying to remedy that problem, Ellmers and her co-horts in the Republican US House are trying to create havoc among the groups trying to educate the public.
The NBC/WSJ poll results indicate 30 percent understand [the ACA] either "very well" or "pretty well."
As it turns out, that 30 percent has more positive opinions about the health-care law (42 percent good idea, 45 percent bad idea), versus the 34 percent who don't understand it very well (17 percent good idea, 44 percent bad idea).
Also, see this from Media Matters:
The North Carolina-based Civitas Institute published a piece on its blog attacking the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by criticizing the number of people who will remain uninsured after the law goes into full effect and urging Congress to cut off funding for the law. However, Civitas, which belongs to a right-wing network with ties to the Koch brothers, ignored necessary context in order to further its misleading narrative.
There is a deliberate attack taking place in North Carolina and all across the US to try to discredit the effectiveness of President Obama's health care reform. We need to stay alert to these attacks and respond to them quickly.
Cross post from BlueNC.com quoting "Under the Dome" from the Raleigh News and Observer.