Wagle warns of dystopian future in ad that misrepresents Bollier’s health care stance
A line of people walk through a dimly lit prison-like facility as government officials bark orders, observe them on security monitors and scan their wrists to determine if they receive healthcare.
What looks like a trailer for the latest dystopian television series is Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle’s first ad for her U.S. Senate campaign. The spot launched Tuesday.
Wagle, a Wichita Republican campaigning for the GOP nomination, targets Democratic front runner state Sen. Barbara Bollier rather than her Republican rivals with an ad that misrepresents Bollier’s position on health care.
Bollier, a Johnson County Democrat and retired physician, been vocal about her opposition to Medicare For All, which would establish a federally funded single-payer health care system and effectively abolish current private insurance plans. Bollier favors building on the current health care system.
The ad presents a dark future in which blindfolded prisoners are led off of a ledge under a single-payer health care system. It links Bollier to the two Democratic presidential candidates most closely associated with Medicare For All, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another champion of the policy.
“It’s called socialized medicine, also known as Medicare For All. The government decides what doctor you can see, when you can see a doctor. It’s expensive, leads to long waits and about as efficient as your local DMV. And this is the health care Warren, Sanders, AOC and Barbara Bollier want to give you,” the ad’s narrator warns.
The ad then brightens and shifts to Wagle and her family, as she discusses her status as a cancer survivor whose children have also confronted the disease.
Beyond the ad’s depiction of single payer health care as a totalitarian system — one used in Canada, the United Kingdom and many other democracies— it misrepresents Bollier’s position. She favors allowing people to keep their private insurance and making more incremental policy changes to lower costs.
“Why would we remove people?” Bollier previously told The Star in outlining her opposition to Medicare for All.
Bollier spokeswoman Ashley All slammed the spot in an email Tuesday morning.
“Susan Wagle knows very well that Dr. Bollier does not support Medicare for All. Rather than having a reasonable debate about how to improve healthcare, Wagle is making dishonest attacks with no basis in reality. These are the same deceptive, partisan attacks Kansans are tired of,” All said. “Dr. Bollier supports expanding KanCare, the state’s Medicaid Program, as well as ending surprise billing to cut healthcare costs.”
The ad foreshadows the attacks that Bollier and other moderates in the region are likely to face this election regardless of where they stand on the issue, especially if Sanders or Warren emerges as the presidential nominee.
Wagle’s ad cites a 2018 Forbes article on Canada’s health care for its claim that a single-payer system would lead to long waits, but it provides no source for its claim that Bollier supports Medicare For All.
Pressed on the justification for the claim, Wagle’s campaign spokesman Matt Beynon pointed to Bollier’s support for Gov. Laura Kelly’s push to expand Medicaid in Kansas.
“Democrats are hellbent on having the government take over our healthcare system. Sanders, Warren, AOC and the like are just more honest about it than Barbara Bollier. You are seeing this is Kansas right now with the Medicaid debate where Governor Kelly is trying to expand Medicaid. If Barbara Bollier supports Governor Kelly’s Plan, then she’ll be support government run healthcare,” Beynon said in a text message.
Kansas is one of just 14 states that have yet to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Bollier supports a bipartisan plan to expand the program, which provides coverage to low-income Kansans, to cover an additional 150,000 people.
The plan also has backing of 11 Kansas Senate Republicans, including the other two members of Wagle’s GOP leadership team, Senate Vice President Jeff Longbine and Kansas Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican who crafted the compromise plan with Kelly. Wagle opposes the plan.
Wagle’s decision to focus her first television ad on Bollier rather than her Republican competitors is noteworthy.
Wagle, who has heavily self-funded her campaign, trailed Republican Rep. Roger Marshall in campaign cash by more than $1 million as of October and internal polling has shown her behind Marshall and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the party’s 2018 nominee for governor.
She will share a debate stage with Kobach, Marshall and other GOP candidates for the Senate seat this Saturday at the Kansas Republican Party’s annual convention in Olathe. The primary vote will take place in August.
This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 9:51 AM.
