Friday, July 30, 2010

Responses to New CMS Advertising Campaign

In case you missed it, this afternoon’s web chat with CMS Administrator Donald Berwick included the unveiling of a new advertising campaign intended to promote the health care law’s “enhancements” to Medicare.  Video of the ad featuring Andy Griffith can be found here; according to a CMS release, it will “begin running immediately on national cable television stations.”  Here’s the script:

1965 – a lot of good things came out that year, like Medicare.  This year, like always, we’ll have our guaranteed benefits, and with the new health care law, more good things are coming: free check-ups, lower prescription costs, and better ways to protect us and Medicare from fraud.  See what else is new.  I think you’re gonna like it.

There are of course several substantive problems with this message:

  • While the commercial claims “we’ll have our guaranteed benefits,” according to the Medicare actuaries, about 15 percent of hospitals and related Medicare providers could become unprofitable within ten years as a result of the health care law, “possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries.”
  • The Medicare actuaries also found that projected enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans would be cut in half as a result of the legislation, meaning the benefits to millions of seniors would change as a result of the legislation.  The Congressional Budget Office also found that extra benefits for seniors participating in Medicare Advantage would fall by an average of more than $800 per year by 2019 – making the changes for millions of seniors one for the worse.
  • The commercial claims that the law will “lower prescription costs.”  It doesn’t mention that Part D coverage premiums will rise for all seniors – the Congressional Budget Office estimated that “the law would lead to an average increase in premiums for Part D beneficiaries of about 4 percent in 2011, rising to about 9 percent in 2019” – so that a select few will benefit.

Besides the technical details of the message is the broader question of its impartiality, and the use of taxpayer dollars.  How does the tagline “I think you’re gonna like it” in connection with “the new health care law” not constitute a political endorsement of the measure, and how is this whole advertising campaign a proper use of taxpayer dollars?

 

UPDATE: The Associated Press is out with their first story about this issue, with this lead paragraph: “Actor Andy Griffith has a new role: pitching President Barack Obama’s health care law to seniors in a cable television ad paid for by Medicare.”  How does what the AP reporter called “pitching Barack Obama’s health care law” in an ad paid for by Medicare not classify as a misuse of taxpayer funds at best, and government-funded propaganda at worst?