Democrats to Develop Plan to Sell Health Care

Alarmed at Republican attacks on President Obama’s health care proposals, Senate Democrats huddled Wednesday with White House officials to formulate a response.
Democrats said they felt an urgent need to devise a “message” to answer Republicans assertions that Mr. Obama’s proposals could lead to “a Washington takeover of

health care.”

Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, said many Democrats felt “unease that we did not have a strategy” to answer the criticism coming from Republican members of

Congress and Republican consultants like Frank I. Luntz, an expert on the language of politics.

Senate Democrats met for more than an hour at the Capitol with David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, and Jim Messina, a deputy White House chief of staff.

“Axelrod came to reassure us that they do have a strategy,” Mr. Bayh said.

Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said: “We believe the public shares our views. But we don’t want to be overwhelmed by either resources, messaging or boots on the ground.”
“We won’t make the mistake of 1993-94,” when President Bill Clinton’s plan for universal health coverage collapsed under a torrent of criticism from the right, Mr. Schumer

added.

Mr. Luntz met last week with Republican senators. His memorandum, circulated on Capitol Hill, is reminiscent of memos by William Kristol, the Republican commentator,

who set out the strategy used by Republicans to defeat the Clinton plan.

In the last two weeks, Republicans have become more outspoken in criticizing the ideas of Mr. Obama and other Democrats who want to establish a government-sponsored

health plan that would compete with private insurers in every state. Republicans have not offered a comprehensive proposal of their own, and Mr. Luntz cautioned them

against criticizing the president by name.

Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip, said Wednesday that the Luntz memorandum was “a catalyst” for the meeting with Mr. Axelrod.

In the memorandum, Mr. Luntz said his polling and analysis had identified this as “the best anti-Democrat message”: “No Washington bureaucrat or health care lobbyist

should stand between your family and your doctor. The Democrats want to put Washington politicians in charge of your health care.”

Mr. Luntz advised Republicans to show they “understand and empathize” with voters’ concerns about soaring health costs. “You simply must be vocally and passionately on

the side of reform,” he wrote.

He urged Republicans to argue that the Democratic plan would “deny people treatments they need and make them wait to get the treatments they are allowed to receive.”

Mr. Luntz recommended this language: “If you have to wait weeks for tests and months for treatment, that’s a health care crisis.”

Similar arguments have been made by prominent Republicans like Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate minority whip; Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah; Senator Jim DeMint

of South Carolina; and Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House minority whip.

Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is chairman of the Finance Committee and an architect of the emerging legislation, said Democrats would counter such

criticism by insisting that consumers would have an unfettered right to pick doctors and insurers.

“You can choose your own doctor,” Mr. Baucus said. “You can choose your own health plan. There’s total choice here. I do not want to say this defensively, but this is not a

big government plan.”

Mr. Baucus said Mr. Axelrod had offered suggestions on how to communicate, using “words that work” and avoiding “words that don’t work.”

Rather than talk about a mandate requiring individuals or employers to buy insurance, Mr. Baucus said, Democrats intend to emphasize the idea of “shared responsibility.”