New Health Care Ad: Every American Deserves CheneyCare

Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress at 4:39 PM on January 7, 2008.

Last month, the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee ran ads in Iowa newspapers advocating for a single-payer health-care bill, highlighting the fact Vice President Dick Cheney has benefited from his government-provided coverage. "If he were anyone else, he'd probably be dead by now" due to his long history of health problems, claimed the ad.

In the group's newest round of ads, which ran "in eight New Hampshire papers" on Friday and will go "national" today, they dub a new name for "guaranteed, publicly-funded health care for all Americans": CheneyCare.

The ad "asks readers to go to CheneyCare.org and sign a petition in support of CheneyCare for all Americans":

Cheney's office "did not respond to a request for comment" by the Washington Examiner, but in December, when the original ads ran, Cheney spokesperson Megan Mitchell said that "something this outrageous does not warrant a response."

As ThinkProgress noted at the time, what is actually outrageous is the fact that there are roughly 47 million people in America without health insurance, including 3.2 million children, but President Bush twice vetoed legislation that would have expanded coverage to 4 million more children.

While it is certainly good that Vice President Cheney was able get the medical attention he needed, the groups' ad is right. Americans do deserve "CheneyCare for all."

Tagged as: cheney, health care, health insurance

Matt Corley is a Research Associate for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.