Some conservative political groups have run into trouble making ads that criticize Obamacare. The ads were intended to showcase "horror stories" from the Democrats' national health care overhaul, but instead attracted zealous fact-checking and ferocious pushback from liberal activists.
The most striking example is a recent ad from Americans for Prosperity, the organization backed by Charles and David Koch, the conservative businessmen-philanthropists who have emerged as this year's Target No. 1 for Democrats. The ad featured a Michigan woman, Julie Boonstra, who said she had been diagnosed with leukemia and given a 20 percent chance of surviving, but had fortunately found a "wonderful doctor and a great health care plan."
At least, before Obamacare. "I was doing fairly well fighting the cancer," Boonstra said in the ad, "and then I received the letter. My insurance was canceled because of Obamacare. Now, the out-of-pocket costs are so high, it's unaffordable. If I do not receive my medication, I will die. I believed the president. I believed I could keep my health insurance plan. I feel lied to."
The ad ended with Boonstra accusing Michigan Democratic Rep. Gary Peters of jeopardizing her health by voting for the Affordable Care Act.
After the commercial aired, fact-checkers noted that under a new policy available to her through Obamacare, Boonstra would actually have lower premiums. Even with higher deductibles, it all pretty much evened out, or even saved Boonstra some money in the end.
So here is a suggestion, free of charge, for Americans for Prosperity: Make a few anti-Obamacare ads with factual claims taken entirely from the pages of The New York Times.
The Kochs could start with a recent op-ed by a man named Eric Wee. Wee supported Obamacare when it was passed, he explained, but said: "What I didn't count on was it would make things harder for me and my wife."
First, the couple's $263-a-month coverage was canceled because it didn't conform to Obamacare requirements. When Wee went shopping on the California exchange, he found the cheapest replacement would be about $620 a month. And since the couple makes more than the $62,040 household limit for adjusted gross income, there will be no Obamacare subsidies for them.
Then Wee needed a new asthma inhaler and a prescription for antibiotics. He "tried frantically to find a medical facility that would take our new Covered California Anthem Blue Cross bronze plan." No luck; he was told it would be three weeks before he could see a doctor.
"Let's not pretend that this new policy is the affordable health care savior that many of us were hoping for," Wee concludes. "For us, our new plan is a big financial hit for a product that does not make it any easier to get basic health care."
It's a perfect Koch Obamacare ad -- right in the pages of The New York Times.
Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.