Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14479

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Goldstein J.
Pharma Buys TV Ads Praising Favored Lawmakers
The Wall Street Journal Health Blog 2008 Oct 22
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/10/22/pharma-buys-tv-ads-praising-favored-lawmakers/#more-3507

Full text:

Hey, Senator, thanks for voting our way on that bill. As a token of our gratitude, here’s a bunch of TV commercials!

The drug industry has spent $13 million in the past five weeks to buy TV ads praising lawmakers who voted to expand SCHIP, the government-backed health insurance program for kids. This tidbit comes to us from the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit group that tracks this sort of thing.

The SCHIP expansion was backed by most Democrats and some Republicans, but it was vetoed by President Bush, who argued that the expansion would provide government insurance to children currently covered by private plans. Many Republicans backed the president, and Congress couldn’t muster the votes to override the veto.

The drug industry supported the bill; kids with insurance are more likely to go see the doctor, and more likely to get prescription drugs if they need them.

So far, the ads have cited 15 House members and 13 senators who voted in favor of the expansion, the Center for Public Integrity says. Most are Dems, but a few Republicans are included as well. Click on the video window above to watch the North Dakota version of the ad, which praises both of North Dakota’s senators as well as the state’s lone congressman, all of whom backed the bill.

Some of the lawmakers named in the bills are in the midst of tough campaigns, but others (including the North Dakota senators) won’t need to run for reelection for another few years.

The ads are sponsored by a nonprofit group called America’s Agenda: Health Care for Kids. But as these filings with the Federal Election Commission (http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C30001150) show, the money for the commercials comes from PhRMA, the big drug industry trade group.