Health Care Reform Advertising Outlives Debate

The health care reform debate might have essentially ended with Sunday's historic House of Representatives vote for passage of the bill, but the legislation will nonetheless have residual effects for the advertising industry.

You thought the ads for health-care reform were over? Think again. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represents more than 1.6 million union workers, has begun airing ads this week in the districts of 14 Democratic members of Congress who voted for health-care reform but whose seats may be at risk because of that vote come November. The campaign -- a one-week, $1 million TV ad buy also backed by the group Health Care for America Now -- is titled "On Our Side." The ads applaud the members of Congress who were pro-reform against what AFSCME calls "the 2,049 health insurance company lobbyists and the $86 million in misleading ads" that were spent during the health-care debate.