Health Care Spin in Tennessee

A Democratic TV ad in the Tennessee Senate race spins the facts on votes that Rep. Marsha Blackburn cast on health care:

• The ad claims she voted in 2012 “to give members of Congress health care for life.” In fact, lawmakers already had received a health insurance retirement benefit. There was a possibility at the time that lawmakers could have lost the benefit, but that never happened.
• It also references a vote in 2017 to take “away maternity coverage from women.” Her vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would have allowed states to set benefit requirements for individual and small-group plans. Some states may have no longer required insurers to offer maternity coverage, but the failed bill wouldn’t have automatically ended the requirement.

The TV ad was launched in early October by Majority Forward, a 501(c)(4) organization that is affiliated with the Democratic super PAC Senate Majority.

Blackburn is running against Democrat Phil Bredesen, a former Tennessee governor.