Delgado’s Campaign Copy and Paste Attack Falls Flat in New York
Valatie, NY – In an article written by Chris McKenna of the Times Herald Record, the Delgado campaign confirms that an attack they are using against John Faso on health care does not even apply in New York. In fact, the article notes that the attack was essentially copy and pasted from similar ads used against Republican candidates throughout the country, and was debunked already by the Empire Center.
“a copy-and-paste ad that the Democratic super PAC has used against Republicans around the country with just the names of the Congress members replaced in each.” (Times Herald Record, 09/22/18)
“Bill Hammond of the Empire Center for Public Policy debunked their claim as irrelevant in New York this month, calling it “particularly misleading in the context of New York State’s insurance market.” (Times Herald Record, 09/22/18)
“Delgado’s spokeswoman, Melissa Toufanian, said two things in response. One was that Delgado was referring to a federal bill with national consequences, even though the altered age rating wouldn’t have applied to New York. (According to Hammond, only one state besides New York — Vermont — forbids age rating, or varying health-insurance prices based on age.)” (Times Herald Record, 09/22/18)
“Antonio Delgado has parroted false talking points from Nancy Pelosi’s SuperPAC without any regard for what is true in New York,” said Joe Gierut, communications director for the Faso campaign. “This particular attack is so transparently misleading that it further emphasizes Antonio Delgado’s limited understanding about the issues impacting New York families and his reliance on D.C. directed Democratic talking points. This certainly won’t be the last copy and paste talking point we see from Antonio Delgado in TV commercials or in upcoming debates.”
The Empire Center originally debunked the claim soon after Nancy Pelosi’s SuperPAC started airing an ad discussing the ‘age tax’: https://www.empirecenter.org/
“This deceptive argument, coined by AARP last year, is particularly misleading in the context of New York State’s insurance market. Due to a quirk in New York law, the state’s older residents actually stood to save money under the House GOP’s proposal” (Empire Center, 09/05/2018)
“In New York, however, this ACA rule had no effect, because the state had previously banned age rating completely in the early 1990s.” (Empire Center, 09/05/2018)
“In the context of New York’s insurance market, the PAC’s one-size-fits-all message turns the facts upside-down.”(Empire Center, 09/05/2018)
It is important to note that the so-called “age tax” only applies in the individual insurance market affecting approximately 7% of insured’s. This provision doesn’t apply to Medicare, Medicaid or those in group plans offered by employers. Delgado doesn’t seem to understand or care about these facts. And, he clearly didn’t understand – nor did the Pelosi ad – that the so-called “age tax” doesn’t apply in New York State anyway.
The only defense from Delgado’s campaign was that John voted against legislation in 1992 establishing a complete community rating system for the individual insurance market in New York. Numerous studies have established that New York’s system actually destroyed the individual insurance market in the State. New York’s individual market shrank from 750,000 people in 1994 to 34,000 people in 2009. (Manhattan Institute, 09/2009)
A New York Times article from 2010 contains the details: https://www.nytimes.