Accountability PA

This is a grassroots organization that is running this ad in the Philadelphia area. If you can spare a few bucks, go help them!

Philadelphia, PA – Accountability PA, a new watchdog organization serving Pennsylvanians, launched a television ad campaign to educate citizens about U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan’s lies about his plans to make health care more costly for Seniors by turning it over to private insurance companies.

The 30-second television ad, called “What Could Be Worse?” will launch this weekend, and will be broadcast in Philadelphia and Delaware County during an initial campaign. News and debate video footage in the ad shows Meehan repeatedly promising that he will stand up to Republican leaders who were calling for Medicare to be turned over to private insurance companies.

Only three months after arriving in Congress, Meehan ignored his promise to act independently and voted to privatize Medicare on April 15 when he supported U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan. A non-partisan government study found that plan would make health care services more expensive to provide than under the current system and increase out-of-pocket costs dramatically for Seniors. (1)

“Pat Meehan ran on a platform of independence and those who voted for him held the belief that he would stick to his word,” said Bob Finkelstein, spokesman for Accountability PA. “At the first opportunity he was given, he broke his central campaign promise in order to support a misguided plan that would make health care much more expensive for Seniors.”

Accountability PA is a new watchdog organization that was created to fight for common sense solutions to the major challenges facing the state of Pennsylvania using targeted issue awareness campaigns. It will advocate for common sense fixes, such as applying sound environmental and tax policies to drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale.

“Regardless of party affiliation, Pennsylvanians want their elected officials to do what’s in the best interests of the public,” Finkelstein said. “Right now it’s hard to believe that many of them are doing anything other than paying attention to who their big donors are.”

Meehan’s support for the plan to privatize Medicare is a perfect example of Washington policy gone wrong and needs to be rejected as Congress works to reduce the nation’s deficit, Finkelstein said. As documented by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the current Medicare system is more effective at keeping the cost of services down than letting private insurance companies run it.

“What kind of a politician can stand up in front of his constituents and tell them with a straight face that a plan that would cost them more to cover less is a solution to their problem?” Finkelstein said. “Pat Meehan’s own budget office told him it’s a bad deal. He needs to stand up to his Party’s leaders and tell them to get back to the drawing board and fight for a real solution that makes sure health care is affordable for Seniors.”:

Additional information about Meehan’s broken promise and the negative impacts of privatization are available at www.accountabilitypa.org/issues .