Full court press on Alaska delegation over Obamacare

HERE COME THE UNION-BACKED ADS: Save My Care, the union-backed group fighting changes to Obamacare, is launching a “seven-figure TV ad buy” targeting Alaska, Nevada, Maine and West Virginia to target Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Dean Heller, Susan Collins and Shelley Moore Capito.

Save My Care hasn’t seen how devastating Obamacare has been in Alaska. The Alaska ad makes no mention of Alaska’s insurance rates going up over 200 percent under Obamacare for people who have to buy it on the market.

Save My Care is funded largely by SEIU, the union that organizes healthcare workers, including hospital, home care and nursing home workers, as well as local and state government employees. None of these people have to buy their care on the Obamacare exchange.

In addition to Save My Care, the airwaves are being inundated by advertising from at least four other groups, according to Alaska political consultant Art Hackney, who monitors such things. They are:
– Planned Parenthood Action Fund
– Coalition to Protect America’s Healthcare
– AARP, formerly known as American Association of Retired Persons
– CommunityCatalyst.org

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund spent $1.4 million during the 2016 election cycle, most of it on independent expenditures allowed by the United United lawsuit. The fund’s affiliates spent well over $15 million during the election cycle.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s PAC, which is registered with the Federal Election Commission, contributed nearly $700,000 directly to congressional candidates in the 2016 cycle, 98 percent of which went to Democratic candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Coalition to Protect America’s Healthcare is another Obamacare protectionist group, and it turned to BlueDigital.com to run its campaign to protect the federal funding for hospitals. BlueDigital works exclusively for Democrats and their associated causes.

CommunityCatalyst.org is funded by George Soros and other like-minded philanthropists.

Hackney said the ads are squarely aimed at Republicans, as many of them are showing up on Fox.

“There is no counterpoint,” Hackney said. No group has stood up any message to contradict the claims being made by these groupss pouring millions of dollars into ads they hope will pressure on Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who appears most likely to cave and leave Obamacare in place.

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE REPORT OUT

Adding fuel to the Resistance fire, the Congressional Budget Office published a report saying that 22 million people will lack coverage under the replacement bill for Obamacare, knows as the Better Care Reconciliation Act.

The CBO estimates that the BCRA would reduce federal deficits by $321 billion over 10 years but increase the number of people who are uninsured by 22 million in 2026.

No one knows for sure how either Obamacare or BCRA will play out in 2026, but the Congressional Budget Office record is spotty. Before Obamacare was enacted, the CBO greatly overestimated the number who would get government-subsidized coverage through the new insurance exchanges.

At the same time, the office vastly underestimated the cost of Medicaid expansion by under-predicting the number who would get coverage through expanding Medicaid.

CBO said 10 million more would be added by 2016, but the real number was 14.4, over 40 percent greater than it predicted.