In Ad, Democrats Cite G.O.P. Indifference to High Health Costs

Mar 10, 2010 — New York Times

By Ashley Southall

Democrats are using examples of soaring health insurance premiums to link Republicans to the problem side of the health care equation.

The Democratic National Committee released a new advertisement Tuesday featuring a clip of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and likely Republican candidate for president in 2012, on CBS’s “Late Show” telling David Letterman, “Insurers are not the problem.”

The clip was juxtaposed with a map showing recent rate increases in states like California, Michigan and Virginia, where insurers have raised or plan to raise rates by as much as 59 percent.

“If Republicans think insurance companies aren’t part of the problem, they don’t understand the problem,” the announcer in the ad said. The ad said that insurance executives were meeting “at the posh Ritz-Carlton in Washington” to plot rate increases.

Demonstrators on Tuesday marched outside that hotel in support of passing comprehensive health care legislation. (Tea Party activists plan to hold a rally against health care on March 16.)

The new ad is in stark contrast to a Democratic ad released last October that highlighted Republican support for health care legislation.

It is the second Democratic ad in two days featuring Mr. Romney, as he and the White House go toe-to-toe over who is responsible for the rising cost of health care. Another ad released Monday singled out Mr. Romney for his insistence that placing the blame for health care costs on the insurance industry is “silly.”