Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-backed organization that is continuing a desperate battle against Obamacare, has spent more than $1 million on advertising to defeat U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor. But a new $700,000 Obamascare buy in Arkansas is the latest to fail a fact check.
From the Maddow Blog, which picks up Huffington Post reporting:
In the ad, a woman identified as Wanda of Marion, Ark., says Blue Cross Blue Shield notified her and her husband that their health coverage would be canceled as of December 2014. “Well now, when somebody tells you if you like it, you can keep it, you believe them,” she says, referring to remarks President Barack Obama made when he was touting the health care law. “But that’s not so in this case.”
And now the “but” …..
First, we learned after the ad was launched that neither Wanda nor anyone else in Arkansas is actually having their plans canceled under “Obamacare.”
It’s simple, really. The Arkansas Insurance Department has allowed non-compliant plans to continue through Oct. 1, 2016. Don’t believe Maddow or Huffington? How about from an organ of the same outfit that owns Fox News?
The total number of Arkansans whose health plans have been canceled as a result of the Affordable Care Act? According to the Wall Street Journal’s tally, the answer is zero.
In other words, the premise of this simple attack ad is at odds with reality.
Facts? Who needs facts when you have faith? Remember Juie Boonstra, another whose TV testimonial didn’t withstand scrutiny? She just refused to believe the black-and-white facts.
AFP knows their market. They know most people who see their ads won’t be fact-checking them on Huffington Post or the Wall Street Journal.