Government
AMA takes uninsured campaign nationwide
■ The Association is tripling its spending on the initiative, which will encourage people to vote in November with the issue of the uninsured in mind.
By Doug Trapp — Posted Feb. 4, 2008
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Washington -- The American Medical Association's campaign to raise awareness of the nation's 47 million uninsured and to help address the problem is going nationwide.
The three-phase initiative kicked off in August 2007 with $5 million in advertising in Washington, D.C., and in the early presidential primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. This year the campaign will spend about $15 million to spread the AMA's message across the country using print, television, radio and Internet ads; healthy lifestyle events; mobile billboards; and profiles on the popular social networking sites MySpace and Facebook.
The effort has two main goals, said AMA Board of Trustees member Samantha Rosman, MD, a pediatric resident in Boston. "The first is to put a human face on the issue of the uninsured," she said. "We're trying to get the message out that the uninsured is not just a statistic, but really individuals who are suffering as a result. The second is to then, with that information, motivate people to go to the voting booth with that in mind -- to demand from candidates from both parties they come up with not only a plan but a commitment to take action if elected."
The AMA has had a health system reform proposal for more than a decade, but it hasn't advanced legislatively, Dr. Rosman said. The Voice for the Uninsured campaign is an attempt this election year to change that.
The Association's proposal calls for providing tax credits or vouchers to individuals and families, based on income, to help them buy health insurance. The plan also includes expansion of health plan choices, more unified regulation of health insurance, guaranteed policy renewals, an individual insurance mandate for those earning more than 500% of the federal poverty level, and subsidies for high-risk enrollees.
The AMA understands that it will take a bipartisan effort to adopt reforms to cover more of the country's 47 million uninsured, Dr. Rosman said. After the presidential election, the third phase of the Voices campaign will focus on Congress and the White House. "We will certainly be there in D.C. pushing hard for a solution with whichever administration is [in power]," Dr. Rosman said.
The campaign has been using the Web to help uninsured individuals tell their stories. More than 600 people have shared details of their lives via the campaign's Web site (link) since August 2007. Musicians, who are often uninsured because of the nature of their work, have performed and been interviewed on podcasts, and the interviews also are posted online. The campaign might sponsor concerts with some of those musicians later this year, Dr. Rosman said.