David Gibson had a nice post at Politics Daily today contrasting recent healthcare ads by FRC on the one hand, and a joint project of American Values Network and Sojourners on the other.
The AVN/Sojourners spot is explicitly grounded in faith, and FRC’s ad is decidedly not:
It’s cute, pointed and fact-free — everything that makes for an effective advocacy spot…
The really interesting thing is that the FRC ad doesn’t make any mention of the hot-button issues like abortion and euthanasia that fueled the opposition of the religious right for so long. Interesting, but also problematic. As Dan Gilgoff of U.S. News asks, “Should a Christian group like the Family Research Council be expected to base its policy positions on the Bible or religious tradition, or is this kind of fiscal-based attack fair game?”
Good point. Of course, fiscal issues can be deeply moral, but shouldn’t the onus be on explicitly religious organizations to make those connections? Or, more to the point, shouldn’t there be a noticeable difference in the content of ads from FRC and, say, the Republican National Committee?
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A short while ago, Sen. Majority Leader Reid announced that the merged Senate healthcare bill will include an opt-out public option. This of course will receive the bulk of public attention moving forward, but there are other important things to flag. TPMDC reported that
In the next several hours, Reid will send the CBO a draft bill with alternative provisions on certain issues, to get a range of cost estimates on the plan he’ll bring to the floor.
That range of estimates and provisions will likely include various levels of funding for insurance premium subsidies and Medicaid expansion — two critical determinants of whether reform will make healthcare truly affordable for all. This morning USA Today reported that the Senate Finance bill would leave 17 million Americans uninsured because they make too much to qualify for Medicaid and make too little to afford insurance premiums. Once the Congressional Budget Office analysis of Reid’s merged bill comes back, we’ll see if the Senate leadership takes to heart the message from people of faith who came to Capitol Hill last week to call for Senate reform legislation to reflect the HELP Committee’s affordability measures, not the Finance Committee’s inadequate ones.
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As Kristin noted, yesterday faith leaders nationwide observed a day of remembrance and action for healthcare reform in a variety of ways, from holding prayer services to speaking at press conference to visiting Members of Congress. News clips today from across the country reflect as much, in places as diverse as Alabama, North Dakota, Illinois, Colorado, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Washington, DC. It just goes to show that healthcare reform is an issue that still resonates in congregations across the country after a months-long debate in Congress, and that the media is noticing.
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Ensuring that quality health insurance is affordable and accessible for all American families has been a high priority for the faith community for quite a while now. Over the past few months, the faith community has organized a call-in with the President that 300,000 have listened to online and services of remembrance and hope , produced study materials and radio and television ads, preached sermons on health care, distributed fliers and told the stories of real people hurt by our broken health care system. People of faith have been creative, dedicated, and passionate in their support for healthcare reform and their remembrance of the lives lost because of our country’s failure to fix the system earlier.
Time isn’t on our side– with every day that passes, more than 14,000 people lose their healthcare coverage, more people are forced to declare bankruptcy because of staggering medical costs, and more families go without needed medical care. According to a recent Harvard University study, 45,000 people have died each year from a lack of health insurance.
At noon today, people of faith will gather in Washington, DC (at National City Christian Church) to remember those 45,00 and to call on Congress and the Obama administration to display strong moral leadership. Similar services are happening across the country, from Lexington, KY to Oakland, CA.
Just before this interfaith service in DC, faith leaders came together on Capitol Hill for a prayer rally and press conference to push for necessary fixes to the Senate Finance Committee bill, which still requires families to spend too much on healthcare that covers too little.
Congress has made some important progress on healthcare reform, but we need to keep the momentum going; this is a historic opportunity and we simply can’t afford to miss it.
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