TV Ad Goes After Insurance Industry

Marc reported earlier today that there's been a strategic shift in the White House's health care reform efforts: to pose insurance companies as the enemy, tying them to the Republican Party and all who oppose White House-led reforms. (As Marc noted, insurance companies aren't exactly the opposition--they've publicly supported the reform cause from the beginning, and America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry group for health insurers, has run an ad supporting bipartisan reforms. Bipartisan reforms likely won't include a public option, but bipartisanship is the current M.O. of Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who is negotating with committee Republicans on a deal.)

Well, there will be a new TV ad on cable nationwide this week seeking to do just that, though it's not from the White House.


The liberal group Americans United for Change (a prominent member of the liberal activist/labor coalition Health Care for America Now!, which will do most of the field work backing Obama's reforms this August) released it this morning. It focuses primarily on the salary of Cigna CEO H. Edward Hanway: