Uniting Our Battles: Medicare + Medicaid + the Affordable Care Act

Overarching Frame: Use a priorities frame—fundamental clash of values—to message on Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.  This frame embodies the belief that ‘nobody gets there ( succeeds at life, etc.) entirely on their own.’

Example of Broad Narrative Using a Priorities Frame (President Obama’s words): “If you get sick, you’re on your own. If you can’t afford college, you’re on your own. If you don’t like that some corporation is polluting your air or the air that your child breathes, then you’re on your own. That’s not the America I believe in, or the America you believe in.

I reject an argument that says we’ve got to roll back protections that ban hidden fees by credit card companies, or rules that keep our kids from being exposed to mercury, or laws that prevent the health insurance industry from exploiting people who are sick.”

Example of Health Narrative Using a Priorities Frame: We believe Medicare and Medicaid are valued programs that remove barriers so the young and the old, those living with disabilities and those living without jobs can succeed and live with dignity. That’s the American way.

Some other people believe gutting Medicare and Medicaid while protecting tax breaks for the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans and corporations will make us a better country. That’s not the America we believe in.

Communications Strategies:

• Center the campaign to protect Medicare and Medicaid and implement the Affordable Care Act on America’s priorities and a ‘clash of values.’
• When highlighting any of the opposition’s proposed changes to healthcare, contrast them with their support for tax breaks for the wealthy or big corporations.
• Americans don’t make distinctions between health care programs and the law—all gets merged under ‘changes to my healthcare.’ Link Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act and connect ‘healthcare’ to our priorities.
• Use messaging that emphasizes making decisions/choices based on priorities. Polls show a large majority of Americans support Medicare and Medicaid and don’t want cuts to these programs. Polls show a conflicted public—they want some budget cuts and don’t understand government spending.
• Identify who receives Medicaid benefits (children, seniors, people living with disabilities)—ordinary Americans and their families—and be specific about its impact (eg: majority of seniors in nursing homes depend on Medicaid).

Example of Messages that Work for Medicare, Medicaid + the Affordable Care Act

The health law serves ordinary Americans. It protects Medicare benefits and strengthens the program for future generations by aggressively cracking down on waste, fraud and abuse in the program, ending handouts to insurance companies, and providing preventive care, including mammograms, colonoscopies, and annual well exams, with no additional cost to seniors.

Cutting dollars and restructuring Medicaid will impact residents living in nursing homes, forcing many seniors to be kicked out of their homes. Is our priority to give tax breaks to the wealthy who already own multiple homes, or to make sure seniors have one safe home of their own?

We have important decisions to make. Should we cut Medicaid protections and unravel the progress we’ve made so kids can see a doctor when they’re sick? Or should we maintain tax breaks for oil companies? The majority of Americans want to invest in the health of children so their future, and America’s future, is a better one.

It is all about priorities. The budget cuts championed by some politicians would privatize Medicare, ending Medicare as we know it, in order to continue to protect billions in tax breaks for the super wealthy and big oil companies.

Healthcare coverage will be more secure because working families can’t be denied care due to a pre-existing condition, or lose their coverage or be forced into bankruptcy when someone gets sick. It will also require that members of Congress get their healthcare from the same plans as millions of Americans.

There's nothing more painful than having a sick child and not being able to take them to the doctor because you can't afford it.  It's time we helped parents get back to work, not take away health insurance for their kids.

NOTE:  Messaging based on research conducted by Anzalone Liszt Research, Lake Research Partners, Westen Strategies.