Right-Wing Health Care Group Tricked British Women Into Appearing In Anti-Reform Ad
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on August 16th, 2009 4:34 am by HL
Right-Wing Health Care Group Tricked British Women Into Appearing In Anti-Reform Ad
Earlier this year, Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR), an anti-health care reform group led by the disgraced former CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Rick Scott, began running a commercial attacking the British health care system. The TV ad runs through “tragic stories” of British citizens who it portrays as being against government-run health care such as […]
Earlier this year, Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR), an anti-health care reform group led by the disgraced former CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Rick Scott, began running a commercial attacking the British health care system. The TV ad runs through “tragic stories” of British citizens who it portrays as being against government-run health care such as the National Health Service (NHS). Watch it:
Now, the Daily Mail is reporting that two of the women featured in the commercial say they were “duped” into appearing in CPR’s ad campaign:
Furious Kate Spall and Katie Brickell claim that their views on the NHS have been misrepresented by a free market campaign group opposed to Mr Obama’s reforms in a bid to discredit the UK system. […]
Ms Spall and Ms Brickell both agreed to appear in a documentary on healthcare reform. But neither knew that the footage would be used as part of a TV advertising campaign carried on US networks.
The Daily Mail article goes on to note that both Spall and Brickell actually support government-run health care and were advocating for reforms within the NHS, not for its abolition.
CPR’s ad campaign is one of many misleading attacks being used by American conservatives against the United Kingdom’s single-payer health care system, which is so popular that even Conservative Party politicians unambiguously endorse it.
The right-wing Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) ran an editorial recently claiming that physicist Stephen Hawking “wouldn’t have a chance” in the UK because the NHS does not offer proper care to the elderly, prompting Hawking to remind IBD that he both lives in Britain and that without the NHS’s “high quality of treatment,” he “wouldn’t be alive today.”
Fed up with the deceptive attacks against their health care system from the American right, British citizens have started the “We love the NHS campaign” on Twitter, which has become one of the top trending topics on the service, with even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown taking part.
Lawmakers Tell ThinkProgress That Angry Town Hall Protesters Deserve No ?Glorification?
At Netroots Nation, ThinkProgress spoke with Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and Alan Grayson (D-FL) about the contentious health care town hall protests that lawmakers around the country are facing in their districts. These representatives and senators are facing angry crowds, death threats, and disturbing bigoted harassment. Both Murphy and Grayson disagreed with members of the […]
At Netroots Nation, ThinkProgress spoke with Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and Alan Grayson (D-FL) about the contentious health care town hall protests that lawmakers around the country are facing in their districts. These representatives and senators are facing angry crowds, death threats, and disturbing bigoted harassment. Both Murphy and Grayson disagreed with members of the Republican leadership who have condoned these protests.
Grayson was especially critical of the recent chaos at Rep. Kathy Castor’s (D-FL) town hall, where crowds — inspired by Fox News’ Glenn Beck — were banging on windows and getting into fist fights. Grayson said that such “disrespect” doesn’t reflect badly on Castor, but “on the people who show the disrespect for the democratic process.” He said that the positions and actions of such people deserve no legitimacy:
And I think in any society, you’re always going to have a certain percentage of people who are nuts. But these are not people who deserve any special recognition, much less glorification. You don’t treat people the way those people treated Kathy Castor. It’s wrong. […]
I look for intelligent, well-founded criticism of any bill because that’s how you make the bill better. But if you have people running around saying this bill is going to kill every old person in the country, how could you possibly show any respect for that silly point of view? It makes no sense to me.
Watch it:
When ThinkProgress asked Murphy whether he has received any death threats, Murphy said that he hasn’t received any “to [his] face.” As a veteran, Murphy also took issue with conservatives claiming that he and other Democratic members of Congress are trying to take away Americans’ freedoms:
I had a guy yesterday try to say to me, “You know, I’m worried about my freedoms.” I say, “Sir, I fought for your freedoms. I’m going to protect those freedoms. I took an oath to support and defend those freedoms. And I take that responsibility very seriously. But, you know, we need to understand that the current path for small business, for everday families, for seniors, is unsustainable.
Watch it:
