Republican gubernatorial hopeful Brian Kemp has a new ad that accuses Democrat Stacey Abrams of distorting his record on health coverage for pre-existing conditions.
The ad is titled "Just Like Yours" and features Kemp and his wife, Marty. It is funded by the Georgia Republican Party and is now airing in metro Atlanta.
The plot
The 30-second spot opens with the Kemps, sitting side by side. Marty Kemp nods as Brian Kemp says: “How ridiculous is politics today?”
Marty Kemp then says Abrams, the former Democratic leader of the state House, is “falsely attacking Brian on pre-existing conditions.”
“It’s sad really,” Brian Kemp responds.
The two then rattle off a list of family members with pre-existing conditions: a daughter, Marty Kemp’s mother, a nephew and Marty Kemp herself.
“Don’t fall for the false attacks,” Brian Kemp says. “My plan will lower health care costs.”
Marty Kemp then declares that “no one is a stronger supporter of protecting Georgians with pre-existing conditions than Brian is.”
“Cause our family depends on it,” he says.
“Just like yours,” Marty Kemp says as the commercial fades.
The context
On his campaign website, Kemp says he plans to create a patient-centered health system. He is promising to lower insurance costs, ensure access to quality care, expand insurance options and cover Georgians with pre-existing conditions.
The Abrams camp says that's not always been his position, as far as coverage for pre-existing conditions go. They cite Kemp's vote in 2005 for Senate Bill 174, known as the Georgia Consumer Choice of Benefits Health Insurance Plan Act.
According to published reports at the time, critics said the bill would hurt women. They said it would make optional some coverage now required, including women’s contraceptives, mastectomy treatment, psychologists, chiropractic and optometric coverage, prescriptions for inhalers and coverage for certain types of anti-cancer drug therapy.
Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state, has talked in interviews this year about repealing the Affordable Care Act. He has said the act “is an absolute disaster, and it needs to be repealed immediately.”
“We need a replacement that puts Georgia patients, not government bureaucrats or special interests, first,” he said.
Watch the ad
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