Another Republican group headed by Karl Rove is starting a $3.2-million ad blitz on healthcare reform against five Democratic Senate candidates, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times said proponents of the new law are about to kick off their own multimillion-dollar advertising campaign.
While polls show more people still oppose the new law than support it, support is growing somewhat, and some predict the law will be a less important in the elections than previously anticipated, according to a report by Kaiser Health News.
The law is not “the sort of two-to-one opposed issues that makes it a slam dunk for Republicans,” Time magazine correspondent Michael Crowley told Kaiser. “People aren’t kind of feeling the passions the way they were a year ago.”
Still, proponents express surprise about the public’s lingering discontent on healthcare reform. “I think a lot of people thought it would be a lot easier to sell the law after it passed,” Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, told the Times. “But Democrats can’t hide from this…. We need to have a strong message about the new law.” Bill McInturff, a GOP pollster, said voters still think the law would increase health costs, taxes and deficit spending, and lower quality of care.
Read other coverage on healthcare reform:
– White House Lists 10 Ways Health Reform Will Reshape Practice of Medicine
– Most Physicians Didn’t Agree With AMA on Proposed Health Reform Expansions
– Pro-Reform Lobbyists Redrafting Message as Polls Show Increasing Interest as Election Issue
