Is Murray ad at odds with her record?

By Jim Brunner
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Call it the Costco solution. The 30-second spots open with Murray standing in a warehouse full of boxes. She says she favors allowing small businesses and individuals to "join together" to create insurance-buying pools with "combined purchasing power" that would cut insurance premiums.

It sounds nice. But Murray opposes major legislation before Congress that would promote insurance pools similar to those her ad describes. And though she serves on a Senate health-care panel, Murray has not proposed any alternative plan.

Murray campaign spokeswoman Alex Glass said Murray has no specific legislation in mind yet but would be pushing Congress to "look into" new solutions.

Her Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, contends Murray is trying to fool voters.

"Her ad is intentionally misleading folks. She's proposing something she opposes in practice," said Nethercutt spokesman Alex Conant.

The legislation Murray opposes would allow trade associations to sell "Association Health Plans" (AHPs) to their members nationwide. The plans would be exempt from individual state regulations. The goal is to create low-cost insurance that small businesses could afford.

Ad watch Title: "Purchasing Power" television ad Candidate: Patty Murray, Democrat running for re-election to the U.S. Senate Time: 30 seconds Images: Patty Murray standing in box-filled warehouse. Murray in front of doctor examining patient. Murray talking to group of people. Murray talking to doctors. Audio (Patty Murray): "When you buy in bulk, you save money. It's the same way with health insurance. One idea is to create buying pools where individuals and small businesses can join together to purchase private health insurance. The combined purchasing power will lower rates just like it does for big corporations. It's one way to lower premiums and allow more families to afford coverage." Analysis: This ad says little of substance and appears to make an effort to portray Murray in a vaguely positive light on the issue of health insurance. Murray actually opposes the major legislation in Congress that supporters say would make it easier for small businesses to join together and buy insurance. The "Association Health Plan" proposal is controversial and opposed by many consumer and business groups, so Murray's opposition in itself is not surprising. Yet Murray, despite the rhetoric in her ad, has proposed no alternative plan to create the buying pools she describes.

The proposal is highly controversial and is opposed by many business and consumer groups as well as by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Critics fear the unregulated plans would offer bare-bones, cheap insurance packages that would cherry-pick the youngest and healthiest customers, leaving other insurance plans stuck with elderly and sick customers, who drive up insurance costs.

The AHP legislation has passed the U.S. House but is stalled in the Senate, where even some key Republicans oppose it.

Tactically, the Murray ads allow her to talk to voters about health care in a positive tone after months of being criticized by Republicans and doctors for opposing caps on damages in medical-malpractice lawsuits.

Doctors for Medical Liability Reform has been running television and newspaper advertisements all year that lament the rising cost of malpractice insurance and claim doctors are fleeing the state because of it. The group blames frivolous lawsuits and criticizes Murray and other Senate Democrats for not passing legislation putting a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages in malpractice cases.

Access to health insurance remains a big issue nationwide, with an estimated 45 million people without coverage. In Washington state, an estimated 550,000 people have no health insurance.

Murray serves on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where she has worked on legislation to lower prescription-drug costs. On the idea of promoting insurance pools like she describes in her ad, Murray spokeswoman Glass said the senator has been "trying to bring folks together" to find an alternative to AHPs.

Glass pointed out that the Senate health committee's chairman, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., also opposes the AHP legislation and has spoken of drafting an alternative, though details have not emerged.

"Ideas have to start somewhere. This is something she's been concerned about a long time," Glass said.

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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