Report: Healthcare critics outspending supporters three-to-one on TV ads

Critics of President Obama’s healthcare law have outspent its supporters three-to-one on television ads, according to a report released Thursday.

Public opinion on the healthcare overhaul has been split almost evenly since Obama signed the law two years ago, despite Democrats’ predictions that it would grow more popular as people learned what it does. The report, released Thursday by Kantar Media, could help explain why the law’s public image hasn’t improved.

Opponents have spent three times more than supporters on ads about the healthcare law in the two years since it passed, according to the report. The Kantar report says opponents have spent roughly $204 million on ads about the law, compared with about $58 million from supporters.

According to Kantar, 410 entities have produced more than 1,000 different ads attacking the healthcare law. Supporters have only come up with 90 TV spots, spread over just 48 advertisers. And that includes ads from the Health and Human Services Department, many of which mentioned the new law while primarily encouraging people to sign up for Medicare.

“At least at this point in the story of the healthcare law, just ahead of the US Supreme Court arguments next week, one side has made a much bigger investment toward winning the argument with voters,” Kantar Vice President Elizabeth Wilner said in a statement. “For the law’s supporters, closing the gap in advertising would require not just more spending and different targeting, but the sudden boost of a Court victory.”

Critics have also done a better job targeting their ads to voters in swing states, according to the Kantar report. Of the 10 markets where opponents spent the most on advertising, eight are in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida, Arizona, Nevada or Ohio.

Supporters have spent more than half their money on national broadcast and cable stations, followed by several markets in California. Las Vegas and Philadelphia are the only swing-state cities in supporters’ Top 10, and the only two markets targeted by both sides of the debate.

The totals include ads from political candidates. Only “a few dozen” candidates have advertised their support for the healthcare law, Kantar said.

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