In a new twist, it's Republicans finally embracing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act while the Democrats are shying away from it — at least in the nationwide campaign ads.
New Kaiser Family Foundation finds that the vast majority of Democrats are avoiding mentioning the PPACA in political ads, with just 15 percent of Democratic ads on health care issues including messaging on the law. Eleven percent of the ads endorsed the law, while 4 percent opposed it.
Meanwhile, the GOP is embracing negative perceptions of the law. Of Republican health care ads, 84 percent mentioned PPACA — all in a negative way.
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One-third of the PPACA political ad spots have been for competitive Senate races, Kaiser found.
Overall, about a quarter (26 percent) of political spots airing so far this year mention health care issues, including Medicare, veterans' health care and women's health issues.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation: "Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 15, more than 1.3 million health insurance and political ad spots that reference health care issues have aired. This includes 742,988 insurance ads (56 percent of the total), such as health insurers advertising products as well as government, marketplace and advocacy groups encouraging enrollment, and 592,092 political ads (44 percent). During the time period, total spending for airing health insurance ads is estimated to be more than 50 percent higher than the total spent airing political ads ($482 million vs. $303 million)."
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