Senators’ Dueling Web Shoutouts Echo Nation’s Partisan Divide On Obamacare
Politically, Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) are not all that far apart. Both are moderates who rejected proposed cuts in Medicaid funds. And yet, in the highly polarized atmosphere of Washington, D.C., they find themselves rallying constituents along diametrically opposed positions.
The dialogue has become President Obama’s Affordable Care Act versus a new GOP bill, called (for now) the American Health Care Act. A love-it-or-leave-it mentality pervades both sides. As angry voters at town halls express their concerns about the state of American health care, the senators are reaching out for patient stories to prove their respective viewpoints.
“Let Me Know Your Obamacare Story” Portman’s website asks and - from the introduction - he’s in search of a particular narrative.
“President Obama’s big government health care bill was supposed to bend the cost curve down,” Portman’s message reads. Instead, it goes on, the average Ohioan with a health care plan obtained through Obamacare pays “nearly an extra $100 a month” in premiums.
“That’s money that could be going toward retirement, groceries, and their children’s higher education; instead it’s going to cover President Obama’s costly mandates,” the website says.
Portman could play a particularly pivotal role in shaping the Senate’s health care bill because he is a member of the 13-member working group that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tasked with writing the first draft.
Warner is in search of a different kind of tale. “Share Your ACA Success Story,” a solicitation that’s been on his website since late February, just weeks after the GOP took control of the House and made repealing Obamacare a top priority.
“Help me make the case against repealing the Affordable Care Act,” it states. “Since its enactment, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has helped millions of Americans gain comprehensive health coverage to protect themselves from life’s many unexpected events.” It cites lower rates of uninsured Virginians.
Portman and Warner are operating in different realities. In Portman’s world, Obamacare has failed; in Warner’s, it’s a huge success. “On particularly high-profile issues like this, the parties are coming from different places and speaking to predominantly different constituencies,” said Elizabeth Rigby, an associate professor of public administration and public policy at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “The idea [that] Rob Portman begins with his assumption and Warner goes to his is actually a pretty understandable dynamic in our current polarized climate.”
Neither senator’s office responded to KHN’s requests for comment.
There is no mystery about human stories’ effectiveness in shaping opinions and helping win debates.
“The stories will usually paint the picture of situations that the audience can empathize with, or see themselves in, or that someone they know has experienced,” said Paul Achter, who chairs the rhetoric and communication studies department at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
One famous example occurred in the early 1990s when health insurers created a memorable advertising campaign about a fictional couple named “Harry and Louise,” whose griping about their medical bills helped sink the Clinton administration’s health care overhaul. In 2009, the couple returned in a new campaign sponsored by drugmakers and a health care advocacy group to support President Obama’s health care plan.
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Tell us what you’ve been told by members of Congress regarding the health law as we collect and analyze letters and emails from elected officials to constituents on the ACA. Share Your Stories But the notion that the â#128;œrealâ#128;ť patient stories featured in debates and advertisements reflect constituentsâ#128;™ reality is highly questionable. One Portman constituent, Sarah, complained that sheâ#128;™d sent the senator an email telling him she was dissatisfied with Betsy DeVosâ#128;™ nomination to be Education secretary, only to receive â#128;œrobo emailâ#128;ť asking if she had any stories of bad experiences with Obamacare. â#128;œI almost lost my mind,â#128;ť she said. An ovarian cancer survivor, Sarah responded to Portmanâ#128;™s email solicitation saying she was grateful for the Affordable Care Act because she no longer worried about her preexisting condition.â#128;œI know you were hoping for an â#128;~I hate Obamacareâ#128;™ story, but you wonâ#128;™t get that from me,â#128;ť she wrote.Both senators have effectively weaponized their constituentsâ#128;™ stories on the Senate floor. In January, Portman harnessed the power of personal experiences to illustrate problems that he said his constituents have had with the health care law.â#128;œThereâ#128;™s a family of five that wrote to me after the cost of his familyâ#128;™s insurance doubled. Another man saw his $100 deductible soar to $4,000 while his premium hit $1,000 a month,â#128;ť Portman said. â#128;œAgain, these folks just canâ#128;™t afford it.â#128;ťWarner played the same card in a February speech opposing Tom Priceâ#128;™s nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services. He spoke of an organic farmer in his state who had relied on an Obamacare plan to get health care for her family.â#128;œThe coverage gains weâ#128;™ve seen are remarkable, thatâ#128;™s clear from hundreds of Virginians whoâ#128;™ve contacted me with stories,â#128;ť Warner said.But in a highly divided electorate - Americans were evenly split over the law in April, with 46 percent reporting they supported it and 46 percent saying they didnâ#128;™t - such heartwarming stories may be pushing people apart, rather than pulling them together.Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.