Million Mailers to Women Plug Obama Health Law
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Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) — Seeking to expand the edge that President Obama holds over Mitt Romney among women voters, the Democratic National Committee this week is sending out 1 million mailers to women in several states to show how the health care law benefits them.
The two-sided flyers aim to succeed where previous Democratic messaging campaigns have failed: to convince women voters in key general election battlegrounds that the law is laden with cost-saving benefits especially for them, and that the savings could be quickly lost if a Republican wins the White House.
“You may now get many of your preventive care services for FREE,” reads one DNC flyer in big bold lettering. “Without co-pays, thanks to America’s New Health Care Law,” it adds in highlighted text.
Another piece heralds “3 WAYS America’s New Health Care Law is Helping You and Your Family.” It touts future parity for women with insurance premiums, an end to lifetime benefits caps, and the ability to let children remain on their health plans until age 26.
A Democratic Party official would not confirm which states would receive the mailing or how the party determined its list of recipients.
The mailing, paid for and organized by the DNC, is part of a broader effort led by the Obama campaign in Chicago to leverage recent debates over contraception coverage and the health care law to their advantage. It also comes ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act next week and the first Supreme Court hearing on the law later this month.
Obama for America recently rolled out a new online interactive tool that lets users input information about themselves to learn which aspects of the law apply directly to them.
And President Obama himself has begun publicly touting benefits for women under the new law, including in his campaign stump speech for the first time last week a line about free preventive care for women.
“So when you see politicians trying to take us back to the days when this care was more expensive and harder to get for women — and I know you’re seeing some of that here in Texas — you just remember we can’t let them get away with it,” Obama said Friday during a Houston, Tex., fundraiser.
Still, selling the health care law anew will be an uphill climb for Obama who, after months of debate over the law and its benefits, has struggled to win over public opinion.
A USA Today/Gallup poll of voters in 12 general election battleground states last month found majorities believe the health care overhaul is a “bad thing” and, if a Republican wins the White House, would favor the law’s repeal.
Seventy-two percent of voters in the survey said early provisions of the law have had no effect on their health care situation, while 42 percent said full implementation after 2014 would likely make their situation worse.
All the GOP Republican candidates have vowed to repeal or dismantle the law upon taking office.
Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said the new Democratic flyers touting the health law’s financial incentives for women won’t be able to gloss over the increasing burdens their families face in the remaining months of Obama’s first term.
“While President Obama tries to spin his failed record with women, budgets are being stretched by increasing prices on everything from food to gasoline as families wonder how they can afford to pay their mortgage, medical bills or send their children to college,” Kukowski said.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio