Democrats intend to make House Republicans pay for passing a Zombie Trumpcare bill that would have taken insurance away from 23 million people in the next decade, destabilizing insurance markets and making healthcare costs unaffordable for all but the youngest and healthiest individuals. That part, in particular, two Democratic groups are highlighting, the 800 percent increase in costs people over age 50 would incur. The House Majority PAC and Priorities USA, two outside groups working to elect House Democrats, have a new ad campaign directed at older voters targeting 10 Republicans in vulnerable seats.
The message of the ads, first shared with TPM, is clearly aimed at older voters whose premiums could have spiked dramatically if congressional Republicans’ plans had become law. The House GOP plan would have loosened the current law’s limit on insurance companies only being able to charge older people three times what they charge younger people to a limit of five times as much.
House Majority PAC Executive Director Charlie Kelly said House Republicans “decided to throw their constituents under the bus by voting for a disastrous healthcare bill that imposes a devastating ‘Age Tax’ on older Americans,” while said Priorities USA Executive Director Patrick McHugh called it “simply unforgivable” that they backed a plan that does so while “cutting taxes for millionaires.”
Their target list is a mix of Republicans in Democratic-leaning districts, like Reps. David Valadao (R-CA) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), congressmen from older, heavily blue-collar areas like Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI), and some where both factors are at play, like Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ), who represents one of the more senior-heavy areas in the country and one of the most Democratic-friendly. One fifth of her district's constituents are over the age of 65, and Trump lost the district by 5 percentage points.
Everyone knows, older voters are the ones who show up reliable every two years. It's not just Democrats who want these voters to know what Republicans have been trying to do to their health care and their pocketbooks. The juggernaut advocacy group, AARP, has tracked the votes of both the House and the Senate, and promised to educate and inform their members—all 38 million of them—about how their representatives voted.
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Here’s the ad they’re running against McSally.