AMA ad blitz: Health care for all
Today the AMA launches a three-year, multi-million-dollar ad campaign. Its goal: Stir up voters to ensure that '08 candidates take the issue of 45 million Americans without health insurance to heart. They want a real solution, Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.
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Doug Krizner: The American Medical Association is trying whip up action to cover the 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance. Today the AMA kicks off a multi-million-dollar ad campaign. Here's Ashley Milne-Tyte with more:
Ashley Milne-Tyte: Dr. Nancy Nielsen is president-elect of the American Medical Association.
When she was a graduate student she had first-hand experience of what it's like to live without health insurance. After taking her sick toddler to the emergency room for treatment…
Dr. Nancy Nielsen: I had no money to feed my kids for the rest of the month. This should not happen to anybody.
Now Nielsen is launching the AMA's three-year print and TV ad campaign, timed to coincide with the 2008 election cycle. She says the first and second year's ads are meant to galvanize voters. . .
Nielsen: . . .to consider as they look at candidates, that they expect candidates to address the issue of the uninsured with a real plan and a real commitment to improve this problem.
In the third year, she says, they'll run ads that press for action to get coverage for the uninsured. The AMA has its own plan, but Nielsen says she'll welcome alternatives, as long as they have a chance of working.
I'm Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
