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Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain released a new television ad discussing health care affordability and access Tuesday in advance of a town-hall meeting he will hold in Des Moines later this week. Although the specifics of the advertising buy are not known, the campaign has indicated that the ad will run only in Iowa for now.
The 60-second ad previews what is likely to be McCain’s core message on the important issue of health care going into November’s general election: Allowing individuals to buy insurance policies across state lines will increase accessibility and affordability.“The problem with health care in America is not the quality of health care, it’s the availability and the affordability,” the Arizona senator says at the beginning of the ad. “And that has to do with the dramatic increase in the cost of health care.” McCain makes the same point again — almost word-for-word — about 50 seconds later, at the end of the ad.
McCain touts only one specific policy proposal in the ad: a plan to “give every American family a $5,000 refundable tax credit so that they can go out across state lines and get the insurance policy that suits them best.”
Summarizing his philosophy on the issue, McCain says, “I can characterize my approach on health care by choice and competition, affordability and availability.” In total, variations on the words “affordability and availability” appear three times in the ad’s 10-sentence script.
The senator also notes: “We need community health centers. We need walk-in clinics. We understand that emergency room care is the most expensive in America,” but the ad ends without shedding light on proposals to address those issues.
McCain has struggled to keep pace with the fund-raising efforts of both remaining Democratic presidential candidates, and he has bought ads in only three other states: New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
The health care ad announcement coincides with McCain’s scheduled trip to Des Moines — a city dominated in many ways by the insurance industry — at the Polk County Convention Complex Thursday afternoon.
The ad appears below:
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